The return of two astronauts from the US space agency NASA International Space Station has already been delayed by more than a month. They will remain at the International Space Station until engineers fix the problems in the astronauts’ Boeing capsule. Officials gave this information on Thursday. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were supposed to stay in the space laboratory for about a week and return in mid-June. Still, NASA and Boeing have had to keep them there longer due to malfunctioning the ‘thruster’ and helium leakage in Boeing’s new Starliner capsule.
Five Thrusters Malfunctioned
NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said mission managers are not ready to announce a return date. Last week, engineers completed testing on a spare thruster in the New Mexico desert to find out what went wrong during ‘docking’ and prepare for the return journey to Earth. On June 6, a day after departure, five thrusters malfunctioned when the capsule approached the space station. Since then, four have been restarted.
Private Companies Are Working
After the space shuttle was retired, NASA hired private companies to transport astronauts to the space station, for which Boeing and SpaceX have been paid billions of dollars. This was Boeing’s first test flight with a crew on board. SpaceX has been carrying humans to space since 2020.
