Sunita Williams May Have to Stay in Space For 3 More Months. What NASA is Planning Next?

Washington: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore will stay longer at the International Space Station as engineers troubleshoot problems on Boeing's new space capsule that cropped up on the trip there.

NASA on Friday announced that a return date would not be set until ground testing was finished, assuring that the astronauts were safe.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program said, “We're not in any rush to come home.”

Veteran NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams launched aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule for the orbiting laboratory on June 5, marking Boeing's first astronaut launch for Boeing after years of delays and setbacks.

The test flight was supposed to last about a week, giving Wilmore and Williams enough time to check out the capsule while it was docked at the station. However, problems with the capsule's propulsion system, used to maneuver the spacecraft, prompted NASA and Boeing to delay the flight home several times while analysing the trouble.

They also wanted to avoid conflicting with spacewalks by station astronauts. But a spacewalk this week was canceled because of a water leak in an astronaut's spacesuit. The issue hasn't been resolved, so the spacewalk planned for next week was also postponed.

As Starliner closed in on the space station a day after launch, last-minute thruster failures almost derailed the docking. Five of the capsule's 28 thrusters failed during docking; all but one thruster was restarted.

Starliner had already experienced a small helium leak when it launched into orbit, and during the flight, several more leaks occurred. Helium is used to pressurize fuel for the thrusters. Boeing said this week that these problems aren't a concern for the return trip.

NASA and Boeing said by delaying the astronauts' return, they would get more time to gather information about the thruster issues and leaks while the capsule was docked. Both are in the service module, a unit attached to the capsule that burns up during reentry.

Initially, NASA said Starliner could stay docked at the space station for up to 45 days due to battery limits. But Stich said that in-flight tests have shown that this limit can be extended.

Officials said they won't set a return date while they do ground tests of capsule thrusters in the New Mexico desert, which are expected to last a few weeks. They want to try to replicate what happened during docking.

Stich said, “I want to make it very clear that Butch and Sunita are not stranded in space, Starliner is designed for missions lasting up to 210 days.” 

Stich mentioned that the astronauts could return to Earth in Starliner if there were an emergency on the space station.

(Inputs from AP)