In an update issued late Friday night, NASA said it was “adjusting” the Starliner probe’s return date to Earth from June 26 to an unspecified time in July.
The announcement followed two days of lengthy meetings to review the Boeing-developed spacecraft’s readiness to fly NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth. The meetings included high-level participation by senior agency officials, including Associate Administrator Jim Free, according to sources.
This “Crew Flight Test,” which launched on June 5 atop an Atlas V rocket, was originally supposed to detach and return to Earth on June 14. However, as NASA and Boeing engineers studied data from the vehicle’s troubled International Space Station flight, they gave up several opportunities to return.
They did so again on Friday evening, citing the need to spend more time reviewing the data.
“We take our time”
“We’re taking our time and following a standard mission management team,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said in a NASA update. “We let the data guide our decision-making in relation to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance that we observed during rendezvous and docking.”
Just a few days ago, on Tuesday, NASA and Boeing officials set a June 26 return date. But that was before a series of meetings Thursday and Friday during which mission managers were to review findings about two significant problems with the Starliner spacecraft: five separate leaks in the helium system that pressurizes the Starliner’s propulsion system and the failure of five of the vehicle’s 28 reaction control system nozzles when the Starliner approached the station.
The NASA update did not provide any information about the deliberations during those meetings, but it is clear that agency leaders could not come to grips with all the contingencies that Wilmore and Williams might encounter during the return flight to Earth, including safely disconnecting from space. station, maneuvering away, performing a de-orbit burn, separating the crew cabin from the service module, and then passing through the planet’s atmosphere before landing under parachutes in the New Mexico desert.
Spaceship has a limit of 45 days
Now, it will take some more time for NASA and Boeing’s engineering teams. Sources said NASA was considering June 30 as a possible return date, but the agency would also like to conduct a few spacewalks outside the station. Those spacewalks, currently scheduled for June 24 and July 2, will now continue. The Starliner will return to Earth some time after that, probably not before the July 4th holiday.
“We’re strategically using the extra time to clear the way for some critical station activities while finalizing preparations for Butch and Suni’s return to Starliner and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we’ll want to make for post-certification missions,” Stich said.
In a sense, it is useful for NASA and Boeing to have the Starliner attached to the space station for an extended period of time. They can gather more data about the vehicle’s performance on long-duration missions — eventually, Starliner will fly operational missions that allow astronauts to stay in orbit for six months.
However, this vehicle is only designed for a 45-day stay on the space station, and that clock began ticking on June 6. Additionally, it is not optimal that NASA feels the need to continue to delay the vehicle in order to be satisfied with its performance for the return trip to Earth. In two press conferences since the Starliner docked at the station, officials downplayed the overall severity of the problems — repeatedly saying the Starliner was cleared to return home “in the event of an emergency.” But they have yet to fully explain why they didn’t like releasing the Starliner to fly back to Earth under normal circumstances yet.