The return to Earth of Boeing's Starliner capsule will be delayed a few more days due to thruster troubleshooting and a scheduled spacewalk.
NASA announced today (June 18) that Starliner will conclude its first human mission to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than June 26, nearly three weeks after it launched. Landing that day is scheduled to occur at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 4:51 a.m. EDT (0851 GMT). We'll carry it live here at Space.com, via NASA Television.
The two-astronaut mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), was originally supposed to spend about a week at the ISS, but its ISS departure has been pushed back considerably. NASA and Boeing are using the extra time to continue evaluating thruster issues that interfered with Starliner's first ISS docking attempt on June 6. Additionally, a postponed ISS maintenance spacewalk will now take place on June 24, two days before Starliner's scheduled departure.
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Stich reiterated that five of Starliner's 28 reaction control thrusters failed during the final phase of the ISS rendezvous on June 6, though four of them eventually came back online. (Starliner succeeded on its second docking try, which occurred several hours later on June 6.) Evaluation of what happened is ongoing. As part of that effort, Boeing and NASA ground team members performed a thruster hot-fire test over the weekend alongside the astronauts, and, after that, Stich said, everyone "feels very confident."
https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-earth-return-delay-june-26-thruster-issues
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