The mission of the Starliner, which for the first time went into space with a crew on board, was extended for the second time – for at least another four days. This is reported by SpaceNews, citing NASA and Boeing.
The mission of the ship, which was originally scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on 18 June, last week extended until at least 22 June. Now NASA and Boeing experts have decided that the craft will remain in Earth orbit until at least 26 June.
NASA and Boeing officials said that keeping the spacecraft in orbit longer would provide more time to study two key problems Starliner encountered during the flight – malfunctions in the space orientation engines and helium leaks. These problems are fixed in the service module, which does not return to Earth and is expected to burn up as the ship enters the atmosphere.
June 5 at 15:52 CET from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral in the U.S. state of Florida launched Atlas V rocket with a manned spacecraft Starliner, on board of which for the first time there was a crew – NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. The spacecraft docked to the Harmony module of the American segment of the ISS on 6 June at about 18:33.
