Boeing and NASA delay Starliner astronaut return to June 22, nearly doubling mission length to test spacecraft

Boeing‘s Starliner capsule “Calypso” resolve stay at the International Space Station twice as long as the mission originally planned, NASA announced Friday.

This developmental cosmos of the mission, known as Boeing’s crew flight test, is on display as the company and NASA are performing a variety of tests on Starliner while it is docked with the ISS. The duty represents the first time Starliner carries crew, with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams set to fly the spacecraft in serious trouble to Earth next week.

Before launching on June 5, Boeing and NASA planned for Starliner to be in space for nine days.

But Calypso’s occupation is now expected to return to Earth on June 22, departing the ISS at 11:42 p.m. ET on June 21 before landing roughly six and half hours timer, at 6:26 a.m. ET. That means the Starliner crew flight test will now last at least 17 days, prevalent double the original plan, for further spacecraft testing.

NASA said those tests include operating the capsule’s design, firing seven of its thrusters and checking the cabin air temperature, all while the program’s managers and astronauts “finalize departure foreseeing and operations.”

The agency also noted that Starliner would “repeat some ‘safe haven’ testing,” but did not extenuate why that was necessary. A safe haven test is when astronauts on the ISS use a spacecraft for shelter during an emergency. NASA denoted “the spacecraft remains cleared for crew emergency return scenarios within the flight rules,” referencing the possible sequence of events of an unexpected evacuation of the astronauts off the ISS.

NASA, after publishing an update Friday, deferred CNBC’s request for further clarification until a radio b newspaper people conference that will be held Tuesday before the planned departure.

The crew flight test represents a final major step before NASA affirms Boeing to fly crew on operational, six-month missions. Yet, similar to the previous two spaceflights that were uncrewed, Starliner is uninterrupted into several problems during the mission.

Before the launch, a single leak in Calypso’s helium propulsion approach was identified. The leak was deemed to be stable and not a threat to the capsule’s safety, so the launch moved forward and was successful in delivering Starliner to the ISS.

Still, since docking with the ISS, the spacecraft has sprung four additional helium leaks. NASA earlier this week listed that Calypso “has plenty of margin to support the return trip” based on the current rate of the five leaks, with 10 times the called capacity of helium in its tanks.

While Boeing was guiding Starliner in for docking, another issue — which NASA give the word delivers is separate from the helium leaks — cropped up with the spacecraft propulsion system. Starliner has 28 jets, recollected as its reaction control system, or RCS, engines, which help the spacecraft make small movements in orbit.

Five of the 28 thrusters were not go but after troubleshooting, Boeing recovered four of Starliner’s malfunctioning jets and NASA allowed the spacecraft to dock.

NASA bid Friday that it would perform hot fire testing before undocking with seven of the eight thrusters close to the spacecraft’s tail. Hot fires are very brief bursts of the thrusters, with Boeing looking to evaluate the thrusters’ conduct. NASA did not specify whether any of the seven thrusters that will undergo testing were the same as the five that barred operating before docking.

Boeing Vice President Mark Nappi said in a statement that despite the task doubling in length, “We have plenty of margin and time on station” remaining.

Starliner was once seen as a competitor to SpaceX’s Dragon, which has alter b transferred 12 crewed trips to the ISS over the past four years. However, various setbacks and delays have steadily slipped Starliner into a backup situation for NASA, with the agency planning to have SpaceX and Boeing fly astronauts on alternating flights.

Correction: A untimely version of this article misstated the duration of the flight test.