NASA astronauts who were aboard the first manned space flight on Boeing’s Starliner will participate in a press conference Wednesday morning.
Flight Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore, 61, a former US Navy captain, and Sunita Williams, 58, a former Navy service member, the flight’s pilot, who are both currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), are set to respond. questions about the test flight and the mission.
Wilmore and Williams lifted off on June 5 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and docked with the ISS on June 6.
The pair were initially expected to spend a week aboard the ISS assessing the spacecraft and its systems and return on June 14. However, the Starliner has experienced several mechanical problems, including helium leaks and a thruster problem, leaving the astronauts stuck aboard the ISS with no return date equipment.
NASA has insisted that Wilmore and Williams are safe while aboard the ISS with the Expedition 71 crew. The agency has said the ISS has plenty of supplies in orbit and the station’s schedule is relatively open until mid-August.
This undated photo by NASA released on July 2, 2024 shows NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the lobby between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and the Starliner spacecraft of Boeing.
Flyer/NASA/AFP via Getty Images
“I want to make it clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, said during a June 28 teleconference. “Our plan is to continue to get them back to the Starliner and bring them home in due time.”
NASA and Boeing say Wilmore and Williams have been “integrated” with the Expedition 71 crew aboard the ISS and are assisting the crew with station operations as needed, as well as completing “objectives” needed for possible Starliner certification by NASA.
“Since their arrival on June 6, Wilmore and Williams have completed half of all hands-on research time aboard the space station, allowing their crewmates to prepare for the launch of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, NASA wrote in a recent update.
This week, teams at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico are conducting ground tests of the Starliner’s thruster, putting it through similar conditions the spacecraft experienced on its way to the ISS, according to an update on the site of the Boeing Internet.
The tests will replicate the connection of the Starliner, when some of the thrusters failed, and what the thrusters will experience from disconnection to landing back on Earth.
“We really want to understand the propellant and how we use it in flight,” Dan Niedermaier, Boeing’s principal engineer for propellant testing, said in a statement. “We will learn a lot from these booster shots that will be valuable for the remainder of the Crew Flight Test and future missions.”
The Starliner has been plagued by problems even before launch. The flight test was originally scheduled for May 6, but was canceled after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance, which makes and operates the rockets that launch the Starliner spacecraft into orbit.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying two astronauts on the Boeing Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test (CFT) is launched on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Fla., June 5, 2024 .
Joe Skipper/Reuters
A new launch date was then set for May 25, but then a small helium leak was discovered in the Starliner service module, which contains support systems and instruments for operating the spacecraft.
These helium leaks and a thruster problem threatened to delay the Starliner’s docking, but it docked successfully. Five days after docking at the ISS, NASA and Boeing announced that the spacecraft was experiencing five “minor” helium leaks, but added at the time that there was enough helium left for the return mission.