The two NASA astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will remain aboard the International Space Station, but a formal return date has not yet been determined, NASA and Boeing officials said Thursday morning as engineers continue to investigate a technical issue with the spacecraft.
Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams first departed for the space station about seven weeks ago in early June, flying a test mission that lasted about a week, but a thruster failure and a small helium leak raised safety concerns and delayed the capsule’s undocking.
A Boeing spokesman said last month that the helium leaks and most of the thruster issues “are all stable and do not pose a concern for the return mission.”
“Four of the five thrusters that were previously shut down are now operating normally, meaning only one of 27 is offline. This will not affect the home mission,” a spokesperson said at the time.
NASA and Boeing officials said no astronauts were stranded and that the technical issues did not pose a threat to the mission.
Earlier this month, NASA said it was still conducting tests to make sure the capsule worked as expected, and that while it was confident the spacecraft would be safe for an emergency evacuation, mission managers were not yet ready to schedule departure.
NASA and Boeing officials said Thursday they were not ready to announce a return date and that the pilots would remain at the space station until engineers finished investigating and working on the capsule’s problems.
“We will return when we’re ready,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said at a press conference. Associated PressHe acknowledged that back-up options, including using another capsule to return astronauts safely, were being considered and said this was the top priority.
Engineers recently completed testing of spare thrusters in the New Mexico desert. According to NASA:Further investigation will be carried out to understand what went wrong. Officials said, according to the Associated Press. Deteriorated seals are thought to be the cause.However, further analysis is needed.
The Starliner mission is the first time the spacecraft will carry a crew into space, and it’s not the first time it has faced technical issues: NASA and Boeing’s mission also had issues before launch, including problems with reaction control thrusters and a helium leak, which delayed its departure.
