NASA and Boeing have not yet set a date for the return of Starliner and its two crew members, who have been at the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6, after faults were detected on the spacecraft.
"We will return home when we are ready," Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said on Thursday.
During a conference call, the official said that in the last two weeks they have carried out several tests in which they have made "great progress", but they are still unable to give a date for the mission's return.
The manned test mission took off on June 5 from a platform in Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA), and the following day docked with the ISS's Harmony module.
During the trip and shortly before docking at the station, mission members discovered technical faults in the spacecraft's propulsion system, a finding that will affect the Starliner's return, since during separation from the ISS some of these engines are turned on to enter the return orbit.
During these days, engineers from the US space agency and Boeing worked in the city of White Sands, New Mexico, and carried out ground tests on an engine in the Starliner's reaction control system, carried out in conditions similar to those experienced by the spacecraft when it approached the ISS.
Stich indicated that the tests allowed them to find the causes of the technical faults related to the insulating tapes.
He added that this weekend, 27 of the 28 thrusters of the spacecraft, which remains docked to the ISS, will be tested to check for helium leaks that were also discovered after the takeoff of what is Boeing's first manned mission.
The NASA manager also announced that the capsule's batteries, which were authorized to operate for 45 days, have received approval to extend their useful life to 90 days, that is, until the beginning of September.
Mission leaders hope to be able to submit a review of the tests carried out so far and the analysis of the data to the US space agency by the end of next week.
When asked about the possibility of the two crew members of this mission, NASA astronauts Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams, returning aboard another space vehicle, Stich and Boeing's vice president of Commercial Crew Program, Mark Nappi, said that the priority is to complete the mission with the Starliner.
"We have contingency plans, we know what they are, but right now our focus is to bring Butch and Suni back on the Starliner," Stich stressed.
The success of the CFT (Crew Flight Test) mission, which initially lasted about 10 days, will mean that NASA will formally have a second supplier, after SpaceX, for the transport of manned and cargo missions to the orbital laboratory, under contracts signed with the two private companies in 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment