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submitted 4 months ago by halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world to c/space@lemmy.world

NASA and Boeing officials pushed back Friday on headlines that the commercial Starliner crew capsule is stranded at the International Space Station but said they need more time to analyze data before formally clearing the spacecraft for undocking and reentry.

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[-] atocci@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

They're not stranded because Starliner is capable of reentry and is already cleared to be used in emergency situations. In fact, the two astronauts had to prepare for an emergency undocking earlier this week when a Russian satellite broke up and the station's crew was ordered to take shelter in their respective spacecraft.

The helium leaks are also still not an issue either. The new leaks aren't "new", they're just so much smaller than the first one that they took much longer to be detected.

It's still docked to the ISS, not because it can't leave, but because they don't want it to leave until they collect all the data they need. Part of this data collection process is supposed to involve 2 spacewalks to examine the service module, but those spacewalks haven't been able to happen yet. Technical issues with the EVA suits prevented the first one they had scheduled from happening. The ship is still fully capable of maneuvering too, they are only down one RCS thruster out of 28.

this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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