After a successful launch that was a decade in the making, Boeing’s Starliner mission is navigating new issues en route to the International Space Station, according to NASA.The space agency said late Wednesday in a post on X that two additional helium leaks had been detected on the vehicle. One helium leak had been discovered prior to launch and deemed acceptable.“Teams have identified three helium leaks on the spacecraft. One of these was previously discussed before flight along with a management plan,” NASA shared in the post. “The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived on orbit. Two of the affected helium valves have been closed and the spacecraft remains stable.”A related exchange had taken place earlier on the NASA broadcast.Just as astronauts Butch Willmore and Suni Williams were about to go to sleep for the night, mission control informed them that they needed to shut down two valves due to the new helium leaks.“Looks like we picked up a couple more helium leaks,” mission control told the astronauts, as heard on the broadcast. Controllers then walked the crew through the plan to shut down the valves.“We are ready to…find out exactly what you mean by picked up another helium leak, so give it to us,” Wilmore told them.“Butch, I’m sorry. We’re still getting the story together,” mission control replied.Since then, NASA and Boeing have determined the crew is safe and told them to go to sleep while they continue to look at the data. The crew was supposed to sleep for nine hours, but the troubleshooting effort cut into an hour of their rest.“We have some issues to watch overnight when in regards to the helium leaks that was just brought up, and we have a lot of smart people down here on the ground that are going to take a look at this stuff and keep an eye on it, but the vehicle is in a configuration right now where they’re safe to fly,” Boeing aerospace engineer Brandon Burroughs said on the NASA broadcast.In the meantime, the “crew continues to make their way to the (ISS) and are in a sleep period,” according to the post from NASA’s Johnson Space Center.It is still unclear what the impact of the leaks will be, but all indications are that the …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnAfter a successful launch that was a decade in the making, Boeing’s Starliner mission is navigating new issues en route to the International Space Station, according to NASA.The space agency said late Wednesday in a post on X that two additional helium leaks had been detected on the vehicle. One helium leak had been discovered prior to launch and deemed acceptable.“Teams have identified three helium leaks on the spacecraft. One of these was previously discussed before flight along with a management plan,” NASA shared in the post. “The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived on orbit. Two of the affected helium valves have been closed and the spacecraft remains stable.”A related exchange had taken place earlier on the NASA broadcast.Just as astronauts Butch Willmore and Suni Williams were about to go to sleep for the night, mission control informed them that they needed to shut down two valves due to the new helium leaks.“Looks like we picked up a couple more helium leaks,” mission control told the astronauts, as heard on the broadcast. Controllers then walked the crew through the plan to shut down the valves.“We are ready to…find out exactly what you mean by picked up another helium leak, so give it to us,” Wilmore told them.“Butch, I’m sorry. We’re still getting the story together,” mission control replied.Since then, NASA and Boeing have determined the crew is safe and told them to go to sleep while they continue to look at the data. The crew was supposed to sleep for nine hours, but the troubleshooting effort cut into an hour of their rest.“We have some issues to watch overnight when in regards to the helium leaks that was just brought up, and we have a lot of smart people down here on the ground that are going to take a look at this stuff and keep an eye on it, but the vehicle is in a configuration right now where they’re safe to fly,” Boeing aerospace engineer Brandon Burroughs said on the NASA broadcast.In the meantime, the “crew continues to make their way to the (ISS) and are in a sleep period,” according to the post from NASA’s Johnson Space Center.It is still unclear what the impact of the leaks will be, but all indications are that the …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
