Boeing Starliner's return to Earth delayed as NASA carries out critical safety investigation
Boeing's Starliner crew ship approaches the space station.
The Boeing's Starliner capsule, which was launched into space with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board, will return to Earth after a week-long delay. US space agency NASA's commercial crew programme manager Steve Stich said the new date of arrival has been set as June 26 against the backdrop of a critical analysis regarding the safety of the spacecraft. Notably, when Starliner managed to dock at the International Space Station, it encountered several problems, including five failures of its 28 manoeuvring thrusters and at least four helium leaks.
Why Starliner's return has been delayed?
According to news agency CNN, the delay is attributed to two major factors—a scheduled spacewalk and thruster troubleshooting.
Stich said the delay would “give our team a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis and make sure we’re really ready to come home.”
“We look at that as an opportunity and in this case, a privilege to stay on station and do more work,” Boeing’s commercial crew programme lead Mark Nappi said, as per the Sentinel. “We’ve always said this is a test flight. We’re going to learn some things. So here we are,” he added.
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Nappi added it was crucial to find out why the spacecraft's thrusters went off during docking. The NASA official said investigating helium leaks was also necessary.
Spacecraft's first human spaceflight
It is the first time that Starliner has been launched into space with humans on board. If the spaceflight is successfully completed, it will get the necessary certification which will allow it to launch NASA missions to the ISS. Currently, NASA has to solely rely on Elon Musk's SpaceX for such missions.
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The return flight, now scheduled fornext week, will take around six hours to return to Earth.
According to an agreement, Boeing is set to launch six missions with the Starliner-1, beginning in February next year. However, Boeing is currently four years behind SpaceX, which has been transporting astronauts from the US since May 2020.
(With inputs from agencies)