NASA and Boeing officials say Starliner is working well, and they are not in any rush to bring the spacecraft and its astronauts home from the International Space Station as they work to troubleshoot equipment problems that surfaced after the capsule launched from Florida earlier this month.
Boeing’s Starliner launched with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board for a stay at the International Space Station. Three potential landing dates were called off and their flight home is now on hold.
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NASA wants more time to analyze problems in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, which is used to maneuver in flight. The propulsion system is attached to the capsule, but it doesn’t come back to Earth for inspection. It is ditched during reentry and burns up. There are also helium leaks, but officials say they have enough helium.
“We don’t understand these issues well enough to fix them permanently, and the only way that we can do that is take the time in this unique environment and go and get more data, run more tests,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and program manager.
To drive that point home, officials said that Starliner was used as a safe haven on Wednesday night when there was a satellite breakup. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said Wilmore and Williams were able to power up Starliner, close the hatch, and were ready to go if there was any emergency with the space station.
“I want to make it clear — Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” said Stich. “Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time. We’ll have a lot more work to do to get there for the final return, but they’re safe on the space station.”
NASA and Boeing are working on developing a thruster test at the White Sands facility to understand what’s going on. That test will be crucial to determining when Starliner will come home.
Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams are working on extra projects tied to NASA’s certification of Starliner and helping with operations on the station.
Starliner has been plagued with issues. Its initial unpiloted test flight in 2019 was derailed by software problems and communications glitches. A second uncrewed test flight was generally successful, but more problems were discovered after its return to Earth, CBS reported.
NASA and Boeing officials also said they would provide more updates to the media going forward to fight rumors regarding the status of Starliner and the crew.
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