Here’s what NASA had to say about return flight for troubled Starliner spacecraft

During a pre-launch press conference on Wednesday, NASA officials said they were confident the problem-plagued Boeing Starliner capsule could safely return to Earth in autonomous mode despite the agency’s earlier decision that operational issues with the spacecraft made it “too risky” to carry its two-person crew back from the International Space Station.
In an Aug. 24 announcement, NASA said that ongoing uncertainty and a lack of concurrence among engineers and other experts “does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the (SpaceX Dragon) Crew-9 mission” along with the decision to fly Starliner back uncrewed and using its onboard autonomous piloting systems.
At Wednesday’s press briefing, Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, noted Starliner has successfully returned from two previous, uncrewed test flights where autonomous systems safely guided the spacecraft back to parachute-assisted ground landings.
“We have confidence in the vehicle, we have confidence that the de-orbit burn will be executed and we have two good landings with Starliner so far,” Stich said. “And expect another one Friday.”
Stich said the agency also completed a required assessment of the vehicle’s condition through the lens of potential threats to public safety on its return voyage and said the consensus was that previous issues with the spacecraft thrusters were not expected to impact Starliner’s flight back to Earth, currently scheduled for Friday evening.
Previous reports from NASA and Boeing detailed that five of 28 maneuvering thrusters failed to perform as expected during Starliner’s docking at the ISS on June 6. Engineers also identified five small helium leaks, some of which were detected before the spacecraft launched. Helium is used in the capsule’s thruster firing procedure. Since then, engineering teams have been scrambling to identify the underlying issues with the thrusters, critical for maneuvering and positioning the spacecraft, including reviewing massive amounts of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts and developing various return contingency plans, NASA said.
Stich also noted that the decision to bring Starliner back without its two-person crew, veteran astronauts and Navy test pilots Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, was not universally supported.
“Boeing believed in the model that they had created to predict thruster degradation for the rest of the flight,” Stich said. “The NASA team looked at the model and saw some limitation. It really had to do with, do we have confidence in the thrusters, and how much we could predict their degradation from undock through the de-orbit burn?”
In an early August press release, Boeing’s commercial space division made a case for the spacecraft’s fitness for bringing its astronauts back safely, providing a lengthy and detailed list of the testing and analysis that had taken place since problems arose on Starliner’s mission that launched June 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Officials from the aerospace giant’s commercial crew program touted their belief in Starliner’s readiness for a safe return but also yielded to NASA’s continued quest, at the time, for better data on the issues.
“Boeing remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew,” the release read. “We continue to support NASA’s requests for additional testing, data, analysis and reviews to affirm the spacecraft’s safe undocking and landing capabilities.
“Our confidence is based on this abundance of valuable testing from Boeing and NASA. The testing has confirmed 27 of 28 RCS thrusters are healthy and back to full operational capability. Starliner’s propulsion system also maintains redundancy and the helium levels remain stable.”
Since the decision to send Starliner back empty, NASA has been working with Boeing engineers to update Starliner’s systems for the autonomous return flight. The ship needs to vacate its dock at the ISS before late September, when the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 flight is scheduled to arrive. Williams and Wilmore will remain at the space station until February and are scheduled to accompany two other astronauts back to Earth on the SpaceX Dragon Crew 9 return flight.
Last week, NASA announced Starliner is scheduled to autonomously undock from the space station at approximately 8:04 p.m. MDT Friday, Sept. 6, to begin the journey home, weather conditions permitting. NASA and Boeing said they are targeting a landing for approximately 12:03 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 7, on the grounds of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
NASA said it will provide live coverage of Starliner’s return with streaming connections available on NASA+, the NASA app and the agency’s website.