In an attempt to salvage his position after weeks of negative headlines, the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) commercial crew program has claimed that the astronauts aboard the Boeing Starliner “are not stranded” in the International Space Station.
After years of delays, Boeing's Starliner capsule carrying astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5. AFP reported.
Starliner was initially scheduled to return from the ISS on June 14, but was pushed back to June 26. However, the return is now being delayed even further due to multiple helium leaks.
Asked about the astronauts' return date, the NASA official said: “We don't have a (landing) date planned today.”
At a news conference on Friday, the manager said: “Butch and Suni are not stranded in space.”
He added that the couple was “enjoying their time on the space station” and “our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the appropriate time.”
A helium leak had reportedly been detected prior to launch; However, during the 25-hour flight more leaks emerged.
Furthermore, some of Starliner's thrusters that enable precise maneuvering did not activate at first, delaying docking. Engineers aren't sure why Starliner's computer “deactivated” these thrusters, although they were able to restart all but one of them.
Addressing the negative comments, Boeing vice president and head of commercial crew program Mark Nappi said, “It's pretty painful to read what's being said about it. We've done a really good test flight so far and it's getting better.” looking quite negatively.
