Boeing\u2019s crew spacecraft Starliner will stay docked with the International Space Station into August, NASA confirmed on Thursday, as the mission remains on hold while the company and agency study problems that arose early in the flight.<\/p>\n
Starliner capsule \u201cCalypso,\u201d which carried NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS, has now been in space 50 days and counting. The Boeing crew flight test has been extended several times while NASA conducted testing back on the ground prior to clearing the spacecraft to carry the pair of astronauts back to Earth.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew manager Steve Stich said during a press conference Thursday that the agency was not prepared to set a return date.<\/p>\n
Boeing\u2019s Starliner lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., on June 5.<\/span>John Raoux \/ AP file<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making great progress, but we\u2019re just not quite ready to do that,\u201d Stich said.<\/p>\n NASA needs to conduct a review that won\u2019t happen until the first week of August, Stich said, and only after that review will the agency schedule Starliner\u2019s return.<\/p>\n The indefinite extension of Starliner\u2019s flight test is difficult to put into context of other human spaceflights due to the unique circumstances and developmental nature of the mission. Any crewed spaceflight comes with heightened risk and scrutiny. Originally, Calypso was expected to spend a minimum of nine days in space before returning.<\/p>\n The Boeing Starliner spacecraft, circled in red, docked with the International Space Station\u2019s forward port on June 7.<\/span>Maxar<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think we all knew that it was going to go longer than that. We didn\u2019t spend a lot of time talking about how much longer, but I think it\u2019s my regret that we we didn\u2019t just say we\u2019re going to stay up there until we get everything done that we want to go to do,\u201d Stich said on Thursday.<\/p>\n Both NASA and Boeing leadership have repeatedly stressed that Wilmore and Williams \u201care not stranded in space.\u201d Officials previously said that Starliner is safe to return in the event of an emergency and that the pair of astronauts are enjoying the extra time on the ISS and assisting the rest of the station\u2019s crew with tasks in the meantime.<\/p>\n Boeing and NASA earlier this month began testing the spacecraft\u2019s malfunctioning propulsion system back on the ground in White Sands, New Mexico.<\/p>\n Stich and Boeing\u2019s Mark Nappi, vice president of the Starliner program, outlined the next steps that must be completed before making the call on when to bring back Starliner.<\/p>\n Boeing on Thursday is finishing dissection of the thruster that was tested in New Mexico. On Thursday afternoon, NASA and Boeing will hold a mission management meeting to plan the docked test firings that are expected to happen on Saturday or Sunday. Then, on Monday or Tuesday, the teams will do \u201can integrated assessment of all the data\u201d from the docked tests, Stich said, before \u201csome significant education of [NASA] leadership\u201d ahead the final big review, also known as \u201cAgency Flight Test Readiness Review.\u201d<\/p>\n Stich also acknowledged again that\u00a0NASA has contingency plans\u00a0in case the agency determines that Starliner should return without Wilmore and Williams \u2014 alternatives that include using SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule to bring back NASA\u2019s astronauts.<\/p>\n \u201cNASA always has contingency options. We know a little bit of what those are, and we haven\u2019t worked on them a whole bunch, but we kind of know what those are,\u201d Stich said. \u201cRight now we\u2019re really focused on bringing Butch and Suni home on Starliner.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Boeing\u2019s crew spacecraft Starliner will stay docked with the International Space Station into August, NASA confirmed on Thursday, as the mission remains on hold while the company and agency study problems that arose early in the flight. Starliner capsule \u201cCalypso,\u201d which carried NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS, has now been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}