CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. — A new return date has been set for Boeing's Starliner capsule after officials said the spacecraft was experiencing issues with its thrusters.
In a teleconference on Tuesday, posted on the NASA Video YouTube channel, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich announced the Starliner's mission to space will end no earlier than Wednesday, June 26.
This delays the crews' return with the previous return date being Saturday, June 2. The original return date was Friday, June 14.
The change comes after NASA and Boeing said they needed to continue evaluating thruster issues that impacted the ship's first docking attempt back on June 6. Five out of 28 thrusters failed during the attempt due to helium leaks, although four of them would later come back online.
"We want to give our teams a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis, and make sure we're really ready to come home," Stich said.
NASA officials say a thruster hot-fire test was performed over the weekend, where the leak rates were reportedly less than what was anticipated. Leaders say they feel more optimistic about their performance.
"Coming out of that we feel very confident in the thrusters," Stich explained.
"This is an opportunity to fully understand the system's performance and without the pressure of schedule or time," Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, said during the press conference. "We've learned that our helium system is not performing as designed. Albeit manageable, it's still not working like we designed it."
The Starliner is currently being crewed by NASA astronauts Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams. They both launched into orbit back on Wednesday, June 5.
"Suni and Butch are doing well," Stich said. "They're anxious to understand every aspect of Starliner that we can."
The Boeing Starliner is set to land at 4:51 a.m. at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
You can listen to the full teleconference below.