The road to Starliner’s return becomes even more complicated.
The Boeing capsule, the protagonist of its first manned flight last June 5, will not detach from the ISS before the second half of July. In fact, NASA wants to carry out laboratory tests on thrusters identical to those deactivated during docking from the spacecraft. This problem has forced NASA and Boeing to continually delay trying to resolve it in orbit.
Having failed so far, laboratory tests will subject the thrusters to the same burn that Starliner used during its approach to the ISS, attempting to replicate the problems that caused the spacecraft to deactivate them.
These simulations would allow NASA to perform impossible-to-perform inspections of the thrusters in orbit, with the aim of making the crew’s next reentry even safer.
This step, however, postpones the re-entry of Starliner until after mid-July: the tests, in fact, should begin no earlier than July 2 and last a couple of weeks, after which NASA will have to analyze the data obtained and set a new date for the release.
Meanwhile, the agency confirms that the vehicle remains in good condition to face the return journey and that its crew, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are not at all stranded on the ISS.
The next tests on Earth, in fact, will further certify the checks carried out so far on the vehicle attached to the ISS.
