NASA astronauts' return on Boeing's spaceship faces repeated delays
The NASA astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the space station have been in orbit longer than anticipated — and will stay there for now, NASA and Boeing say.
The two NASA astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the International Space Station earlier this month have stayed in orbit much longer than anticipated — and will continue to do so, NASA and Boeing say.
The original plan for this first crewed test flight of the Starliner called for veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to spend about a week on the space station before riding the capsule back to Earth. They arrived at the orbiting outpost June 6.
But their return journey has been postponed several times. NASA initially floated June 18 as the earliest date the astronauts could return, after which the agency said the flight back would happen on June 22. Then that was changed to June 26, and the latest delay, announced Friday, pushed the planned landing back to an as yet undetermined new date.
The reason for the adjustments, NASA has said, is an investigation into issues with the capsule that cropped up earlier in the flight. The spacecraft's propulsion system has a slow helium leak — something mission managers knew about prior to launch. At the time, they said it was unlikely to affect the test flight or the safety of the astronauts, but four additional helium leaks were detected once the spacecraft reached orbit.
As the Starliner craft neared the space station on June 6, five of its thrusters also malfunctioned, delaying the final approach by just over an hour.
Rating: 5