NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are facing an extended stay at the International Space Station due to ongoing issues with their Boeing Starliner capsule.
Originally scheduled for a week-long mission ending in mid-June, the pair has been stranded in orbit for over a month.
Thruster failures and helium leaks have plagued the Starliner, forcing NASA and Boeing to postpone the astronauts’ return. Despite ongoing investigations and tests, a concrete return date has yet to be determined.
While the primary goal remains bringing Wilmore and Williams back on the Starliner, NASA has acknowledged that using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule as a backup option is under consideration.
NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said mission managers are not ready to announce a return date.
“We’ll come home when we’re ready,” Stich was quoted as saying by news Agency AP.
“NASA always has contingency options,” he added.
Delayed return and safety concerns
Engineers are currently analysing a spare thruster to understand the root cause of the thruster failures. They believe degraded seals might be responsible for both the helium leaks and thruster problems, but further investigation is required.
To gather more data, the Starliner’s thrusters will undergo test firing while docked at the space station this weekend.
Earlier, this month, a report had emerged revealing that NASA and Boeing were aware of a helium leak on the Starliner spacecraft before its launch on June 5.
Despite being informed of the issue, they assessed it as minor and decided it did not pose a safety risk, proceeding with the launch anyway.
Once the Starliner reached orbit after a 25-hour journey, it encountered four additional helium leaks, which rendered one of its thrusters unusable.
This unforeseen issue has caused delays in the return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. Their departure from the International Space Station (ISS) was initially scheduled for June 13 and then rescheduled to June 26, but both planned returns have been cancelled.
This extended stay marks a significant setback for Boeing’s commercial crew program.
The Starliner’s previous test flights were also marred by issues, including a failed mission to the space station in 2019 due to software errors.
In contrast, SpaceX has successfully transported astronauts to and from the space station since 2020. However, recent groundings of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets due to an upper-stage failure could potentially delay future crew flights.
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