NASA officials said that despite an indefinite delay in their return to Earth, the Boeing Starliner crew stuck on the International Space Station due to mechanical problems with their spacecraft are not “trapped” in space.
Starliner Commander Butch Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams have been confined to the space station for weeks after their June 5 launch on the first Boeing-manned space flight.
They were due to return on June 13 after a week on the station – but the craft suffered problems with its thrusters and helium leaks when docked at the station, keeping them in orbit indefinitely while engineers analyze the problems.
“We don’t have a target (landing) date today,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters during a teleconference, CBS reported. “We’re not going to target a specific date until we complete that testing.
“So basically, it’s completing the testing, completing the fault tree, bringing that analysis to the (mission management team) and then there’s an agency-wide review. And then we’ll lay out the rest of the plan from unlock to landing. I think we are on a good path.”
The Starliner spacecraft’s return module is docked to the ISS’s Harmony module, but Harmony has limited fuel, narrowing the window for a return date.
The Boeing’s service module, which houses helium lines, thrusters and other critical systems, ejects before re-entering and burning up in the atmosphere, according to CBS.
Engineers want to study failed systems and hardware before it is destroyed and gather as much data as possible before the astronauts return home.
Stich and Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, insisted that Wilmore and Williams are in no way trapped or in danger, despite the media’s characterization of what’s going on.
“It’s very painful to read the things that are there,” Nappi said. “We’ve had a really good test flight…and it’s being viewed quite negatively. We are not stuck on the ISS. The crew is in no danger and there is no added danger when we decide to return Suni and Butch to Earth.”
Stich added that he wants to “make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not trapped in space.
“Our plan is to continue to get them back to the Starliner and get them home at the right time,” he assured. “We’ll have a little more work to do to get there for the final return, but they’re safe on the space station. Their spacecraft is doing well and they are enjoying their time on the space station.”
The Starliner launched with a known Helium leak, but four more developed as the ship attempted to dock. At the station, the valves are closed to cut off the helium system, avoiding any additional leakage.
However, when they leave, the valves must reopen to pressurize the lines, CBS reported.
Even with the known leaks, the capsule still has 10 times the amount of helium it needs to get home — but engineers want to make sure the leaks won’t get worse once the system is pressurized, according to Stich.
The five thrusters on Starliner’s service module also failed to function as expected during approach to the space station on June 6, but are ready to operate for launch.
Starting next week, a new, identical thruster will be tested at a NASA facility in New Mexico to determine what may have gone wrong.
Ground tests are expected to last “several weeks”.
Boeing has been plagued by a series of problems in recent years. In January, a nozzle plug blew out a new Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-9 at 10,000 feet. Their 737 MAX planes also suffered crashes in 2018 and 2019.