spacetoday.net: Starliner to remain at ISS well into July

Posted: Sun, Jul 7, 2024, 4:31 PM ET (2031 GMT)
NASA and Boeing are keeping the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station for the foreseeable future to conduct more tests. In a briefing June 28, officials said they have not set a new departure date for Starliner, which has been at the station since June 6, because they want to perform ground tests of thrusters to better understand why some were shut down during the spacecraft's approach to the station. Those tests will take at least two weeks, and could be followed by more tests of the thrusters on Starliner itself. Those officials emphasized that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew to the station on Starliner, are not "stranded" there and that the spacecraft could return them safely in the event of an emergency. They said they are extending the mission to collect more data, particularly from the service module that is not recovered after the mission. NASA also announced at that briefing that an ISS spacewalk that was scheduled for this week has been postponed to late July while they study a water leak during a scrubbed spacewalk last week.