Vikrant Shekhawat : Jul 26, 2024, 08:20 AM
NASA News: The return of two astronauts of the US space agency NASA from the International Space Station has already been delayed by more than a month. They will remain on the International Space Station until engineers fix the problems in the astronauts' Boeing 'capsule'. This information was given by officials on Thursday. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were supposed to stay in the space laboratory for about a week and return in mid-June, but NASA and Boeing have had to keep them there for longer due to a malfunction in the 'thruster' and leakage of helium in Boeing's new Starliner capsule.Five thrusters malfunctionedNASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said mission managers are not ready to announce a return date. Engineers completed testing on a spare thruster in the New Mexico desert last week to find out what went wrong during 'docking' and prepare for the return journey to Earth. On June 6, a day after departure, five thrusters malfunctioned when the capsule approached the space station. Since then four have been restarted.Private companies are workingAfter the space shuttle was retired, NASA hired private companies to transport astronauts to the space station, for which Boeing and SpaceX have been paid billions of dollars. This was Boeing's first test flight with a crew on board. SpaceX has been carrying humans to space since 2020.