NASA shares update on investigation of Boeing Starliner’s ‘in-flight anomalies’ following astronauts' return to Earth

NASA has shared an update to the investigation of Boeing’s shuttle issues now that the stranded astronauts have returned to Earth.

It has been over six months since Boeing’s shuttle landed back to Earth after traveling to the International Space Station (ISS).

Whilst it was supposed to originally carry NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home, the myriad of issues on board meant that the pair had to stay in space for nine months and prepare to be collected by Elon Musk’s SpaceX craft.

The reason they could not return on their Boeing Starliner Calypso, was because it is said to have malfunctioned from helium leaks, as well as its thrusters failing, which made it unsafe for Williams and Wilmore to return home.

Boeing's Starliner has been riddled with issues (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)

In a Thursday (March 20) update, NASA shared that NASA and Boeing are ‘making progress toward crew certification of the company’s CST-100 Starliner,’ and that its respective teams are ‘working to resolve Starliner’s in-flight anomalies and preparing for propulsion system testing in the months ahead.’

According to an official statement published on the company’s website, once they ‘get through these planned test campaigns, we will have a better idea of when we can go fly the next Boeing flight,’ as per NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich.

The update continued: "We’ll continue to work through certification toward the end of this year and then go figure out where Starliner fits best in the schedule for the International Space Station and its crew and cargo missions."

"It is likely to be in the timeframe of late this calendar year or early next year for the next Starliner flight," Stich added.

It stated that in the months after the Starliner returned to Earth sans its astronauts, ‘NASA and Boeing have worked on postflight data analysis from its crewed flight test’.

From there, the statement claims that there has been a lot of work completed to get down to the bottom of its ‘in-flight anomalies’.

It shared that there has been around more than 70 percent of flight observations and ‘in-flight anomalies being closed at program-level control boards’.

SpaceX's craft was sent to collect the stranded astronauts (Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images)

However, the issues aren’t expected to be fixed until the end of this year, or early next year.

It said: “The major in-flight propulsion system anomalies Starliner experienced in orbit are expected to remain open further into 2025, pending the outcome of various ground test campaigns and potential system upgrades.”

As of right now, NASA and Boeing are working figure out the timeline, as well as solutions and upgrades to ensure that the craft can go back into space.

The teams are continuing testing new helium system seal options to stop the risk of future leaks.

They’ll create two dissimilar human spaceflight systems so that the crew is safe, and that flight to the ISS is possible.

At the moment, SpaceX is running circles around its space competition, so it’ll be interesting to see how Boeing pulls through with a solution.

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