Two NASA astronauts from Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule may remain in space until mid-August as engineers continue to work to fix technical problems that prevented their return in June, The Guardian reports.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6 after first docking with the crew of the next-generation spacecraft. The test mission was supposed to last about a week, but Starliner’s undocking was delayed several times due to faulty engines and then a series of small helium leaks that raised safety concerns.
NASA announced on Wednesday that it is still conducting tests to make sure the capsule will work as expected, and while the space agency is confident the craft is safe for an emergency evacuation, mission managers are not yet ready to schedule its departure. Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said at a lunchtime press conference:
Some of the data suggests optimistically, maybe it’s by the end of July, but we’ll just follow the data each step at a time. We’re going to work methodically through our processes, including a return flight readiness review with the agency, before we get the go to proceed towards undocking and landing. This is a very standard process.
He also added that the planned ISS crew rotation in mid-August was “sort of the final stage” of the mission, designed to avoid overcrowding in orbit. Stich noted:
Obviously, a few days before launch, we’ll need to get Butch and Sunny home on the Starliner.
He said the space station, which now has a permanent crew of seven in addition to Starliner’s two astronauts, has enough supplies and resources, so engineers have time to ground test engine models at NASA’s White Sands Test Site in New Mexico and fix helium leak problems – possibly by the end of the week.
Boeing vice president and commercial crew programme manager Mark Nappi told reporters he is confident that the Starliner programme will become more successful as the current problems are resolved. He said:
All this information is going to go in a big bucket, and all the engineers are going to review it and try to see if it doesn’t point to root cause or point to some additional testing that we can do in the future to eliminate this problem once and for all.
