Two NASA astronauts will stay longer at the International Space Station as engineers fix problems with Boeing’s new space capsule that arose during the trip. until there.
NASA on Friday did not set a return date until the tests were completed and said the astronauts were safe.
“We are in no rush to get home,” said NASA commercial crew program director Steve Stich.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, veteran NASA test pilots, blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule bound for the orbiting laboratory on June 5. It was Boeing’s first astronaut launch after years of delays and setbacks.
The test flight was expected to last about a week, enough time for Wilmore and Williams to check out the capsule once it was docked with the station. But problems with the capsule’s propulsion system, which is used to maneuver the craft, led NASA and Boeing to repeatedly delay the return flight home as they looked into the issues.
They also wanted to avoid conflicts with the spacewalks of the station’s astronauts. But a spacewalk was canceled this week after water leaked from an astronaut’s spacesuit. The problem has not been resolved and the walk scheduled for next week has been postponed.
As the Starliner approached the space station a day after launch, last-minute thruster failures nearly derailed docking. Five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters failed during docking; all but one started up again.
Starliner already had a small helium leak when it launched into orbit, and several more leaks occurred during the flight. Helium is used to pressurize the propellant fuel. Boeing said this week that the two problems are not a concern for the return trip.
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