Boeing and NASA postpone Starliner astronaut return to June 22

BoeingThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on Friday that the Starliner spacecraft Calypso will stay at the International Space Station for twice as long as its originally planned mission.

The developmental nature of the mission, known as Boeing’s Crew Flight Test, comes as the company and NASA conduct a variety of tests on the Starliner docked to the ISS. The mission marks Starliner’s first crewed flight, with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams scheduled to return the spacecraft to Earth next week.

Boeing and NASA had planned to keep Starliner in space for nine days before launching on June 5.

However, the Calypso mission is scheduled to return to Earth on June 22, departing the ISS at 11:42pm ET on June 21 and landing about six and a half hours later at 6:26am ET. This means Starliner’s crew flight test will last at least 17 days, nearly double the time originally planned, to allow for further testing of the spacecraft.

According to NASA, those tests will include operating the capsule’s hatch, firing its seven thrusters and checking cabin temperatures while program managers and astronauts “finalize departure plans and operations.”

NASA also said Starliner will “conduct several repeated ‘safe haven’ tests,” but did not explain why that is necessary. A safe haven test would involve astronauts aboard the ISS using the spacecraft as a shelter in the event of an emergency. NASA said the “spacecraft is prepared to respond to a crew emergency return scenario within the flight rules,” referring to the possibility of an unexpected evacuation of astronauts from the ISS.

After providing the update on Friday, NASA deferred CNBC’s request for further clarification until a press conference on Tuesday before the scheduled departure.

The crewed test flight is the last critical step before NASA gives Boeing the go-ahead to fly crewed spacecraft on a six-month operational mission. But like its two previous space flights, which were uncrewed, Starliner has faced some issues during the mission.

Prior to launch, a leak was identified in Calypso’s helium propulsion system, but the leak was determined to be stable and did not pose a threat to the capsule’s safety, so the launch went ahead as scheduled and Starliner was successfully delivered to the ISS.

But since docking with the ISS, the spacecraft has had four more helium leaks, and NASA wrote earlier this week that based on the current rate of the five leaks, Calypso has 10 times the required amount of helium in its tanks and “has ample headroom to support the return voyage.”

While Boeing was guiding Starliner towards docking, another problem emerged with the spacecraft’s propulsion system, which NASA said was separate from the helium leak. Starliner has 28 jet engines called Reaction Control System (RCS) engines that help the spacecraft make small movements in orbit.

Five of the Starliner’s 28 thrusters were not working, but after troubleshooting, Boeing was able to salvage the Starliner’s four failed jets and NASA gave the go-ahead for the spacecraft to dock.

NASA said Friday that it will conduct hot-fire tests on seven of the spacecraft’s eight tail-end thrusters before the undocking. Hot-fires are very brief bursts of thrusters that Boeing will use to evaluate their performance. NASA did not say whether the seven thrusters being tested are the same five that were shut down before the docking.

Boeing Vice President Mark Nappi said in a statement that despite doubling the mission length, “there is ample room and dwell time remaining.”

Starliner was once seen as a rival to SpaceX’s Dragon, which had successfully carried 12 crewed flights to the ISS over the past four years, but various setbacks and delays have seen Starliner gradually relegate to backup status for NASA, which plans to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing to carry astronauts.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the duration of the flight tests.