NASA postpones Boeing Starliner's return until after more thorough inspections.
By Joey Roulette and Mrinmay Dey
(Reuters) -NASA has further postponed the Boeing Starliner's return to Earth from the International Space Station with its first crew of astronauts, to allow more time for review of technical issues encountered, the agency said on Friday. Nasa News
It did not set a new date, raising questions about the timing of the return of the two astronauts on Boeing's first crewed mission, which had initially been set for June 26, itself a pushback from the first potential date of June 14. Nasa
"Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s two planned spacewalks on June 24 and July 2," NASA said in a statement.
The U.S. astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, lifted off on June 5 as a final demonstration to obtain routine flight certification from NASA.
The crewed test of the spacecraft, test-flown to space two times since 2019 without humans on board, has encountered five failures of its 28 maneuvering thrusters, five leaks of helium gas meant to pressurize those thrusters, and a slow-moving propellant valve that signalled unfixed past issues.
The issues and the additional tests run by NASA and Boeing call into question when exactly Starliner's crew will be able to make the roughly six-hour return journey home, and add to the program's broader problems.
Boeing has went through $1.5 billion in fetched invades past its $4.5-billion NASA advancement contract.
NASA needs Starliner to ended up a moment U.S. shuttle competent of shipping space travelers with the ISS, nearby SpaceX's Group Mythical beast, its essential ride since 2020.
But Boeing's Starliner program has combat computer program glitches, plan issues and subcontractor debate for years.
When Starliner arrived in the space station's region to dock on June 6, the five thruster disappointments avoided a near approach by the shuttle until Boeing made a fix.
It revamped program and changed a few strategies to resuscitate four of them and continue with a docking.
Starliner's undocking and return to Soil speak to the spacecraft's most complicated stages of its test mission.
NASA authorities have said they need to superior get it the cause of the thruster disappointments, valve issue and helium spills some time recently Starliner starts its return.
Flight rules set by Boeing and NASA require Starliner's maneuvering thrusters to permit for "six degrees of opportunity of control," at a least, and each have one reinforcement thruster, a NASA representative told Reuters.
That might cruel at slightest 12 of the 28 thrusters, most of them reinforcements, are required for a secure flight.
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