The first crewed voyage of Boeing’s Starliner was supposed to last around a week, but the high-stakes mission is still in limbo eight weeks after launch.
Their high-stakes mission was supposed to last about a week — but 56 days later, two NASA astronauts are still aboard the International Space Station, waiting as teams on the ground try to figure out how to bring them home safely in the Boeing spaceship they rode to orbit.
The beleaguered Starliner capsule has two problems: its propulsion system is leaking helium and five of its thrusters malfunctioned as it was docking with the space station. Mission managers were aware of the leaks before the vehicle lifted off but had said they were unlikely to affect the flight or the astronauts’ safety.
tl;dl
Starliner thrusters all passed 3 hot fire simulations of a return mission. Probably fine to fly home.
Ground testing was able to match what happened to the thrusters on approach. NASA now more confident the theory around fuel flow restrictions was correct.
Catch is they’ll never know for sure because the thrusters in space can’t be taken apart to examine. And they won’t make it back to Earth because they’re on a portion that detaches before re-entry.
The rumors around using Dragon for a return mission are true. But in that NASA has had time to think up multiple scenarios that weren’t ever possible prior for return missions. There are now around 4-5 options thought up. NASA might go on to test some of those ideas out.
ISS has so many ships docked, with more planned, that a decision on Starliner is happening soon. Regardless of if people are aboard, it needs to leave ISS by September if I was following along correctly.