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Pilot and Needham native Suni Williams, along with commander Butch Wilmore, remains stuck on the International Space Station nearly a week after their expected departure date while NASA crews work to understand several issues that have arisen since the pair launched into orbit on Wednesday, June 5.
Among the problems sparking concern are malfunctions of the vehicle’s thrusters and numerous helium leaks that sprang up during their flight to the space station.
The problems occurred on Starliner’s service module, a cylindrical attachment on the bottom of the vehicle that gets discarded as the spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.
In an update on Tuesday, June 18, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said the earliest that Williams and Wilmore will be back on land is Wednesday, June 26.
“We want to give our teams a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis, and make sure we’re really ready to come home,” Stich said.
“So far, we don’t see any scenario where Starliner is not going to be able to bring Butch and Suni home. We really want to work through the remainder of the data.”
Williams and Wilmore are serving as guinea pigs of sorts on Starliner’s first crewed mission, years after Boeing flew the aircraft on unmanned missions in 2019 and 2022.
During those test flights, NASA noted a number of problems with Starliner’s software and propulsions system, CNN reports. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, June 6, Stich told reporters that officials “thought we had fixed that problem.”
“I think we’re missing something fundamental that’s going on inside the thruster,” he said.
The journey marks its last test before the craft goes into regular service in 2025 as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, aimed at providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to the space station. SpaceX began providing service in 2020.
A 1983 graduate of Needham High School, Williams became an astronaut in August 1998 after more than a decade as a helicopter pilot in the US Navy. She made her first trip to the International Space Station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in December 2006.
Throughout her career, she has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft. In 2019, her hometown of Needham honored her by naming its new elementary school Sunita L. Williams Elementary School.
Learn more about the upcoming Starliner mission on NASA's website.
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