NASA and Boeing officials responded to recent reports that two astronauts who were transported to the International Space Station aboard the Starliner are stuck on board, saying in a news conference Friday that they are using the “luxury of time” to learn as much as possible about the capsule before it returns to Earth.
The astronauts will remain there for a few more weeks while the company and NASA conduct more tests from the ground — meaning another extension of their stay, though officials declined to provide a new target date for their return.
“I want to make it clear that we are in no rush to get home,” Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said during the press conference. “The station is a nice, safe place to stop and take the time to work on the vehicle and make sure we are ready to go home.”
Meanwhile, engineers from Boeing and NASA will head to the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico to conduct a series of remote tests on the spacecraft’s engines. There are 28 thrusters on board the Starliner, which are responsible for making precise changes to the spacecraft’s movements in orbit, which are necessary for safe docking and separation from the International Space Station. This docking process was halted on approach when five of the batches malfunctioned in orbit, but engineers were able to bring four of those batches back online, allowing the docking process to continue.
Starliner has also experienced several small helium leaks since its June 5 launch, but NASA and Boeing officials said those leaks are not a concern for reentry. Starliner is not leaking any helium while attached to the ISS because it is located in a sealed portion of the spacecraft. The spacecraft also has 10 times the amount of helium it needs to survive the separation and burn-up process in orbit, Stich said.
The thruster test is expected to take a few weeks, during which time veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain aboard the station. They have been aboard the ISS for about three weeks so far; the mission was expected to last a week or so. Stich said a landing plan will be determined once the thruster test is complete.
“We just look at the timeline for implementing this test, and then review the test [data]”That’s really the deciding factor, I think, in determining when to land,” he added.
The Starliner was designed to fly missions of up to 210 days, but the first crewed test mission was limited to 45 days due to battery limitations in the capsule’s crew module. But the space station recharges those batteries, so Stitch said the agency is considering extending the maximum stay time.
“The risk over the next 45 days is basically the same as the risk over the first 45 days,” he said.
While Stitch and Mark Nappi, Boeing’s program manager for the Commercial Crew Program, said the root cause of the problems is still not understood, and that Starliner is safe to bring astronauts home in an emergency. The International Space Station nearly had one earlier this week, when a Russian Earth-observing satellite exploded in orbit. (The cause of the collapse is unclear.) NASA officials ordered the crew to take shelter in their spacecraft, a standard precaution. While no debris came near the ISS, in the event of a collision, the astronauts could have used those spacecraft to get off the station and back to Earth.