The astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station via NASA's Starliner spacecraft on June 5th, 2024, are still awaiting their journey back to Earth. Their return has already been delayed and rescheduled several times due to launch system and thruster issues. It's now been 50 days since the mission launched. According to Space.com, Starliner is rated as able to stay in space for up to 90 days.
On Thursday, July 25, NASA and Boeing held a press conference to discuss the Starliner mission and provide updates. AP News reports that there is still no return date scheduled and that the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will remain at the International Space Station until engineers repair the problems with the Boeing capsule.
Space.com explains that NASA and Boeing are examining and attempting to repair issues with helium propulsion and thrusters:
Boeing's Starliner will do a "hot fire" test in orbit soon, as NASA and the company continue to probe the cause of thruster failures and a helium leak in space.
Starliner will conduct the test-fire of its 28-thruster reaction control system (RCS) on either Saturday (July 27) or Sunday (July 28) at the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and Boeing announced in a press conference today (July 25). Only 27 of the RCS thrusters will be used, however, as one previously was deemed unusable for the flight home . . .
"We're going to fire all those thrusters to a number of pulses, just to make sure before we undock, that whole system performs the way we expected and the way it did last time we checked it," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told reporters in a livestreamed press conference.
"We'll also get a chance to look at the helium system," he added. "It's been six weeks since we last checked that helium system; that was on June 15. So we'll pressurize manifold by manifold, and then hot-fire the thrusters, and then we'll get a chance to look at the helium leak rates and verify that the system is stable."
According to AP News, Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said at the press conference that "mission managers are not ready to announce a return date" and that "the goal is to bring Wilmore and Williams back aboard Starliner." AP News continues:
"We'll come home when we're ready," Stich said.
Stich acknowledged that backup options are under review. SpaceX's Dragon capsule is another means of getting NASA astronauts to and from the space station.
"NASA always has contingency options," he said.
To read the rest of Space.com's excellent in-depth reporting on the press conference and the mission, here's the full article by Elizabeth Howell, a journalist who holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies. You can watch the replay of the press conference here.
Previously:
• NASA has a possible Ingenuity successor and her name is MAGGIE
• NASA causes panic with livestreamed simulation audio
• NASA was rocked by a scandal when the Apollo 15 crew took unauthorized envelopes to the moon, planning to sell them later
• New NASA image of unusual asteroid reveals it has its own moon
