CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two astronauts who were supposed to return to Earth weeks ago said Wednesday they were confident their Boeing space capsule would make it home safely, despite a malfunction.
NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams Release Earlier this month, the first passengers boarded Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft, which was shut down due to a helium leak and a failed thruster. arrival We’ve been on the International Space Station for much longer than planned.
At their first press conference from orbit, they said they planned to return once thruster tests on Earth were complete. They said they were happy with the extended time in orbit and were enjoying helping the space station crew.
“I have a really good feeling that the spacecraft is going to get us back home safely,” Williams told reporters.
The test flights were scheduled to continue for eight days, until June 14th.
This week, NASA and Boeing are trying to replicate the Starliner thruster problem on a brand new unit at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, one of the main landing sites in the western desert of the U.S. The problem lies in the propulsion system used to steer the spacecraft.
Five thrusters failed as the capsule approached the space station on June 6, the day after launch. Four have since been restarted. Wilmore said there should be enough thrusters still working to get him and Williams out of orbit, and that larger engines could be substituted if necessary.
“As you’ve heard, failure is not an option, and that’s why we’re here right now,” Wilmore said. “We believe the testing we’re doing is the testing we need to get the right answers and the data we need to get back.”
Boeing and NASA believe ground testing is essential to determine what went wrong because that part of the capsule, the service module, will be discarded before landing, and it’s in that discarded part that the leak occurred.
NASA paid billions of dollars to order Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon capsules a decade ago to ferry astronauts to the space station. SpaceX’s first flight with astronauts on board was scheduled for 2020. Boeing’s first crewed flight was repeatedly delayed by software and other issues.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
