When it doesn’t want, it doesn’t want. Since the start of the mission, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has had one set of disappointments. The mission of astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, which was normally scheduled to last eight days, has been extended until an undetermined date. A spokesperson for Being interviewed by the Guardian explained that they had to “adjust the return to Earth of the spacecraft, with two spacewalks planned for Monday June 24 and Tuesday July 2”. No date has been set for the return of the astronauts.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are currently aboard Boeing’s Starliner, docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The two NASA veterans were normally due to return to Earth this Wednesday, June 26, but a new technical problem forced them to postpone their departure.
No urgency to leave the ISS
“We are taking our time and following the standard process of our team that manages the mission,” NASA official Steve Stich said during a press briefing. He also indicated that the crew was in no rush to leave the station, as it was well stocked and “the station schedule is relatively open until mid-August.”
Even before the Sartiner ship took off from Florida on June 5, the problems continued. The project was a year behind schedule, over budget by $1.5 billion and several last-minute postponements, before technical problems got in the way.
A Boeing spokesman reassured that the helium leaks and most of the thruster problems were “all stable and do not pose a problem for the return mission.”
