Mission Reports

Starliner landing now on indefinite hold for more tests, but NASA insists crew not ‘stranded’ in space

The problem for NASA and Boeing is that the Starliner’s service module, which houses the helium lines, thrusters and other critical systems, is discarded before re-entry and burns up in the atmosphere. Engineers will not be able to study the hardware after the fact and as a result, they want to collect as much data as possible before NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams head home.

News

Starliner crew welcomed aboard space station

Working around multiple helium leaks and thruster problems, the crew of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft wrapped up a challenging rendezvous and a delayed-but-successful docking with the International Space Station Thursday in a major milestone for the new ship’s first piloted test flight.