The return leg, with a fiery plunge through the atmosphere, is a key part of the test flight that will stress the spacecraft’s heat shield with temperatures reaching about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft prepares to dock for the first time with the International Space Station on June 6. to the International Space Station for about a week, is getting some extra time in space, NASA said Tuesday, as officials troubleshoot helium leaks and study why some
is small and won’t pose a problem for the return, NASA said. Helium is used to pressurize the propellants through the propulsion system.NASA originally said Starliner would come home June 18, then pushed the landing back to June 22. The thruster problems and helium leaks are contained in the spacecraft’s service module, which is used to maneuver the capsule during flight. Before the capsule reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the service module is jettisoned and burns up.
“In some cases, we think the heating may have caused the propellants to vaporize a little bit and we didn’t get good mixing , and that’s why the thrust was a little bit lower,” he said. Engineers still don’t understand what is causing the helium leaks, he said. “We’ve always said this as a test flight and we’re going to learn some things,” said Mark Nappi, a Boeing vice president who oversees the Starliner program. “So here we are. We’ve learned that our helium system is not performing as designed, albeit manageable. … So we’ve got to go figure that out.”
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