"Continuing to understand the capabilities of Starliner" as NASA/Boeing delay return

NASA on Friday pushed back the return of Boeing's Starliner and its crew of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams from the International Space Station a few more days.

Starliner's return will now be no earlier than June 22. It had already been pushed back once to Tuesday, June 18, four days later than initially anticipated.

NASA gave no indication of problems as a reason for the delay.

“We are continuing to understand the capabilities of Starliner to prepare for the long-term goal of having it perform a six-month docked mission at the space station,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, was quoted as saying in Friday's statement.

Docked to the ISS since June 6, after additional helium leaks were found and thruster performance became an issue during docking, Starliner has been checking off many of the NASA test flight standards required to gain certification as a crew transport vehicle like the SpaceX Dragon. The tests include things like the important "safe haven" demonstration, which proves Starliner can be used as a shelter should an emergency occur on the orbiting outpost.

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Boeing Starliner landing date postponed

The original reason for Starliner's longer-than-planned stay onboard the station was to assist with a scheduled spacewalk on Thursday. But that spacewalk was cancelled a few hours prior due to a "spacesuit discomfort issue," NASA said in a statement.

No further details were given about the scrubbed spacewalk, however by the end of the day, NASA gave a new date for the spacewalk. Now it will be June 24, which is after Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to depart.

The June 24 spacewalk, preformed by NASA astronauts Tracy Dyson and Matthew Dominick, will be the first of two. The focus will be on the removal of "radio frequency group hardware." The second spacewalk is planned for July 2.

NASA, Boeing plan extra time for Starliner Flight Test

According to the statement released by NASA on Friday, NASA and Boeing plan to use this extra time to perform a "hot fire test" of seven out of eight aft-facing thrusters. This will include two bursts of the thrusters ? which will last about a second. The data from this test will allow teams to gain insight into how the spacecraft will perform after docked to the ISS after an extended period of time. With the goal of Starliner ferrying six-month missions to the space station, teams are working to gain all the data that they can.

“The crew will perform additional hatch operations to better understand its handling, repeat some ‘safe haven’ testing and assess piloting using the forward window," Stich said.

“We have an incredible opportunity to spend more time at station and perform more tests which provides invaluable data unique to our position,” Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing Commercial Crew Program, was quoted in the statement.

Teams plan to host a readiness review ahead of Starliner's undocking from the space station on June 18. The landing site will be the New Mexico desert, where Starliner will make a parachute and airbag assisted landing ? similar to what is seen with Blue Origin's New Shepard and Russia's Soyuz.

Once this flight test is successfully completed, Starliner will be evaluated for certification to ferry NASA astronaut crews to the space station in rotation with SpaceX's Dragon.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Starliner astronauts get longer stay on ISS as landing date postponed