Team Blitz India
The return of the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test spacecraft with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams from the International Space Station (ISS) has been further delayed. Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s one more planned spacewalk that takes place on July 2, according to a post on NASA website.
The official website quoted Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, saying that the space agency was taking time and following standard mission management team processes.
Agency-level review
“We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking. Additionally, given the duration of the mission, it is appropriate for us to complete an agency-level review, similar to what was done ahead of the NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 return after two months on orbit, to document the agency’s formal acceptance on proceeding as planned,” the NASA blog quoted him.
Wilmore and Williams remain integrated with the Expedition 71 crew, assisting with station operations as needed and completing add-on inflight objectives for NASA certification of Starliner, the post added. Their return to earth had to be aborted twice – on June 22 and June 26. In the last instance, teams from NASA and Boeing were targeting “no earlier than 10:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the undocking of the Starliner spacecraft” from the ISS.
“For the primary undocking opportunity, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the first crew to fly aboard Starliner, would land about 4:51 a.m. on Wednesday, June 26, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico,” said an earlier post on NASA website. The 59-year-old Indian-origin Williams achieved a milestone being the first woman to pilot and assess a new crewed spacecraft during its inaugural mission. The flight took off on June 5 and the journey lasted 24 hours till the ISS. The blast-off took place after many delays as the spacecraft experienced challenges including four helium leaks and five malfunctions of its 28 manoeuvring thrusters.
A first of a kind
This flight is notably the first human spaceflight of the commercial capsule. If the test is successfully completed, NASA and Boeing will be given full certification of the Starliner. This will allow it to alternate with SpaceX on frequent missions that will carry astronauts to the ISS, reports added.
