Written by Mrinmay Dey and Joey Roulette
- (Reuters) -To give more time for the evaluation of technical difficulties discovered, NASA has further delayed the Boeing (NYSE: BA) Starliner’s return to Earth from the International Space Station with its first crew of astronauts, the agency announced on Friday.
- “Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s two planned spacewalks on June 24 and July 2,” a statement from NASA read.
- On June 5, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two American astronauts, launched as a last-ditch effort to receive NASA’s regular flight certification.
- “We are proceeding according to our standard mission management team protocol,” stated NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.
- According to Stich, “Starliner is performing well in orbit while docked to the space station,” and the extra time would provide “valuable insight” into system enhancements for the next missions.
- The spacecraft’s crewed test, which has been sent into orbit twice without humans since 2019, has experienced five thruster failures out of a total of twenty-eight, five helium gas leaks that were intended to pressurize the thrusters and a slow-moving propellant valve that indicated unresolved previous problems.
- The concerns compound the larger issues facing the program, raising doubts about whether the crew of Starliner will be able to complete the approximately six-hour return trip home. These issues also arise from the additional tests conducted by NASA and Boeing.
- Beyond the terms of its $4.5 billion NASA development contract, Boeing has incurred cost overruns totaling $1.5 billion.
- NASA hopes that Starliner will join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has been the ISS’s main transport since 2020, as the second American spacecraft equipped to carry passengers.
- However, for years, Boeing’s Starliner program has struggled with subcontractor conflicts, design flaws, and software bugs.
- On June 6, Starliner approached the space station to dock, but five thruster problems kept the spacecraft from getting close until Boeing fixed them.
- To bring four of them back to life and move on with docking, it changed some software and adjusted a few processes.
- During Starliner’s test voyage, the most challenging parts are when the spacecraft must undock and return to Earth.
- Before Starliner starts its return, NASA officials have stated that they want to learn more about the reason behind the thruster failures, valve problems, and helium leaks.
- Although Starliner’s current flight had just one dead thruster, during the capsule’s unmanned return from orbit in 2022, Boeing experienced four thruster issues.
- As per the flight regulations established by NASA and Boeing, Starliner’s maneuvering thrusters must have one backup thruster and provide a minimum of “six degrees of freedom of control,” an official from NASA informed Reuters.
- This could imply that for a safe flight, at least 12 of the 28 thrusters—the majority of which are backups—are needed.
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