After the spacecraft’s thrusters passed a successful fire test, the lengthy voyage of the Starliner’s first crewed mission might soon be coming to a close.
This suggests that the spacecraft’s initial mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will come to an end soon.
As reported by Gizmodo, the Starliner CST-100 spacecraft has been parked at the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6.
Helium leaks and thruster malfunctions during the docking procedure are only two of the obstacles the mission has encountered.
Furthermore, June 14 was the initial scheduled return date for the spacecraft.
However, in order to guarantee a safe return, NASA and Boeing planned to carry out a few more tests that are not feasible to perform on Earth, therefore the return was postponed.Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams, two astronauts, tested each of the vehicle’s twenty-eight thrusters individually earlier on Tuesday. This was done to gauge the rate of helium leakage and thruster performance.
According to a NASA statement, the results were positive and within the critical margins for the spacecraft’s return via ship.
