Troubleshooting Starliner: Astronauts to remain at ISS until at least the end of July

NASA said it continues to investigate problems with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which remains at the International Space Station weeks after it was slated to ferry astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth as part of Starliner's first crewed mission.

Officials from NASA and Boeing — which built the Starliner — now say it could be the end of the month or early August before the pair make their return trip.

"You know, we're taking our time on the ground to go through all the data that we have before we decide on the return opportunity," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, during a Wednesday afternoon teleconference. "We're taking time to build confidence in the spacecraft to understand the thruster performance, those thrusters that failed off during docking and also totally understand the helium margins before we undock. You know, what we're doing is not unusual for a new spacecraft."

Starliner is one of two capsules built by private companies for NASA to ferry astronauts to the ISS. The other is SpaceX Crew Dragon, which made it's first crewed flight in 2020 and which has had 13 successful mission to the station so far.

After years of setbacks, Boeing was finally able to launch the Starliner carrying Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the ISS last month on what was supposed to be a one-week mission.

Prior to launch, a helium leak was found in the service module ? the underneath of the Starliner capsule which contains thrusters and is disposed upon reentry. Boeing teams determined that the helium leak was small and contained, and proceeded with launch operations.

As the hours leading to docking with the ISS approached, addional helium leaks in the service module were detected. As the crew prepared for approach towards the ISS, multiple thrusters shut off, forcing teams on the ground to do what is called a "hot fire". As the crew manually piloted Starliner, all but one of the thrusters fired back up ? allowing the crew to safely dock to the ISS.

The thruster issue is being investigated at the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Other work being performed at the Johnson Space Center was delayed this week as Houston dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

"Today is the first day that the Johnson Space Center is now back open, fully open for business," said Stich. "Some people are actually impacted and not able to work as much as we would hope. But we're still continuing to make a lot of progress."

Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing Commercial Crew Program, also added that Boeing's facility in Houston was impacted as well.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA and Boeing give Starliner update: Astronaut return date unknown