two NASA astronaut There will be an extended stay on the International Space Station as engineers troubleshoot the problem. Boeing’s new space capsule It suddenly appeared during a trip there.
NASA said Friday it would not set a return date until ground testing is completed and the astronauts are safe.
“We’re not in any rush to get back,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.
Veteran NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams It was launched aboard a Boeing Starliner capsule. On June 5, Boeing blasted off to the orbital laboratory, marking the company’s first astronaut launch after years of delays and setbacks.
The test flight was expected to last about a week, giving Wilmore and Williams plenty of time to inspect the capsule while it was parked at the space station. Problems with the capsule’s propulsion systemThe malfunction of the device used to steer the spacecraft forced NASA and Boeing to repeatedly postpone the return flight while they analyzed the problem.
They also wanted to avoid a collision with an astronaut walking through space, but this week’s spacewalk was canceled after an astronaut’s spacesuit leaked water. The problem has not been fixed, and a spacewalk scheduled for next week has been postponed.
As Starliner approached the space station the day after launch, a last-minute thruster failure nearly prevented the docking from occurring: five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters were shut down during docking, but all but one was restarted.
Starliner already had one small helium leak when it was launched into orbit, and several more developed during flight. Helium is used to pressurize fuel in its thrusters. Boeing said this week that the two issues were not a concern for the return journey.
In delaying the astronauts’ return, NASA and Boeing said they needed more time to gather information about a thruster malfunction and leak that occurred while the capsule was docked, both of which were in the Service Module, which is attached to the capsule and will burn up during re-entry.
NASA had originally said that battery limitations would allow Starliner to remain docked to the space station for a maximum of 45 days, but in-flight testing showed that limit could be extended, Stich said.
Officials said they would not set a return date until several weeks of ground testing of the capsule’s thrusters in the New Mexico desert, where they hope to replicate the conditions that occurred during the docking.
“I want to be clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” Stich said, adding that Starliner is designed for missions of up to 210 days.
Stich said that in the event of an emergency on the space station, astronauts could return to Earth on the Starliner.
Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA has handed over transportation of astronauts to private companies. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has conducted nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020. NASA plans to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing in transporting crew members to the space station.
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