WASHINGTON, July  10, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A pair of NASA astronauts left
stranded on the International Space Station without a clear departure date
expressed confidence Wednesday that their Boeing Starliner spaceship would soon
bring them home.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off on June 5 following years of
delays and safety scares affecting Starliner, as well as two aborted launch
attempts that came as the two were strapped in and ready to go.

They docked the following day for what was meant to be roughly a week-long
stay, but their return has been pushed back because of thruster malfunctions
and helium leaks that came to light during the journey.

Asked during a live press call from the orbital outpost whether they still
had faith in the Starliner team and the spaceship, mission commander Wilmore
replied "We're absolutely confident."

"I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us
home, no problem," added Williams.

She said they were continuing to enjoy their time aboard the ISS,
performing tasks like changing out the pump on a machine that processes urine
back into drinking water, and carrying out science experiments such as gene
sequencing in the microgravity environment.

They have also tested Starliner as a "safe haven" vehicle in case of
problems aboard the station, and checked out how its life support performs when
four people are inside.

Before Wilmore and Williams can come home, however, ground teams need to
run more testing to better understand the root causes of some of the technical
issues Starliner experienced.

It was known there was one helium leak affecting the spaceship before the
launch, but more leaks emerged during the flight. While non-combustible, helium
provides pressure to the propulsion system.

Separately, some of Starliner's thrusters that provide fine maneuvering
initially failed to kick in, delaying docking. Engineers are not sure why the
craft's computer "deselected" these thrusters, though they were able to restart
most of them.

The crew insisted Starliner could fly home in case there was an emergency,
since the problems affected only the fine maneuvering thrusters and not those
responsible for the deorbit burn that would bring the spaceship back into the
atmosphere.

Teething issues with new spaceships aren't uncommon.

But the Starliner program has suffered from comparisons to SpaceX's Crew
Dragon. Both companies were awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts in 2014 to
provide the US space agency with rides to the ISS, with SpaceX succeeding in
2020 and carrying dozens of people since.