NASA announced on June 14 that the Starliner, Boeing’s spacecraft, and its crew will return to Earth from the International Space Station no earlier than Saturday 22 June.
The additional time will allow the team to finalize planning and launch operations while the spacecraft remains ready for any emergency scenarios for the return of the crew, in compliance with flight rules, NASA explained on its blog of Kennedy Space Center.
The Starliner test mission departed June 5 from KSC with astronauts Butch Whitmore and Suni Williams on board. During its journey to the ISS, they were Helium leaks detected in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Earlier in the week, NASA said its teams were continuing to evaluate what impacts, if any, the five small helium leaks would have on Whitmore and Williams’ return to Earth. At the time, the space agency had scheduled the return of the Starliner for Tuesday 18 June,”pending weather conditions and the readiness of the spacecraft”.
NASA said engineers had determined that helium leaks were not expected compromising the return of the Starliner. The agency said the spacecraft had enough helium for 70 hours of free flight time, when it would have needed just seven as part of its journey home. However, NASA has stated that it will deliver to the Starliner seven of its eight thrusters rear while docked at the space station”to evaluate thruster performance for the remainder of the mission”.
“We are continuing to understand the capabilities of the Starliner to prepare for the long-term goal of having it perform a mission six months docked at the space station,” said Steve Stich, Program Manager Commercial Crew of NASA. “The crew will perform additional hatch opening and closing operations to better understand its handling, repeat some ‘safe haven’ tests and evaluate handling using the forward window”.
Mark Nappi, vice president of the Program Commercial Crew of Boeing, added: “We have an incredible opportunity to spend more time at the station and carry out more tests that provide valuable data to our position”.
NASA has concluded that it will provide more information on the return of the Starliner in a media briefing on June 18. After the Starliner undocks from the space station, it is scheduled to make a parachute- and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.
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