Finally got up there, and now can't get back down. ----------------------------------------------------------
Two NASA astronauts who rode to orbit on Boeing's Starliner are
currently stranded in space aboard the International Space Station
(ISS) after engineers discovered numerous issues with the Boeing
spacecraft. Teams on the ground are now racing to assess Starliner's
status.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled
to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but their stay
has been extended for a second time due to the ongoing issues. The
astronauts will now return home no sooner than June 26th, according to
NASA.
After years of delays, Boeing's Starliner capsule successfully blasted
off on its inaugural crewed flight from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space
Force Station at 10:52 a.m. EDT on June 5. But during the 25-hour
flight, engineers discovered five separate helium leaks to the
spacecraft's thruster system.
Now, to give engineers time to troubleshoot the faults, NASA has
announced it will push back the perilous return flight, extending the
crew's stay on the space station to at least three weeks.
"We've learned that our helium system is not performing as designed,"
Mark Nappi, Boeing's Starliner program manager, said at a news
conference on June 18. "Albeit manageable, it's still not working like
we designed it. So we've got to go figure that out."
The return module of the Starliner spacecraft is currently docked to
the ISS's Harmony module as NASA and Boeing engineers assess the
vital hardware issues aboard the vessel, including five helium leaks
to the system that pressurizes the spacecraft's propulsion system, and
five thruster failures to its reaction-control system. ----------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/astronauts-stranded-in-space-due-to-multiple-issues-with-boeings-starliner-and-the-window-for-a-return-flight-is-closing
--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.
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