Malfunctioning Systems Need Some Investigation Before the Return Trip

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams managed to hitch a ride aboard the Boeing Starship on June 5th, arriving at the International Space Station after some stressful equipment oddities, leaks, and failures - but they're on track to come home on June 26th. 

Originally, the launch was intended to be a week-long live-fire test of the much-maligned and finicky Starliner, with all involved crossing their fingers that the flight would go off without a hitch and return back to Earth a proven launch apparatus. Instead, the outbound leg saw Starliner exhibit at least 4 helium leaks, and the failure of about a fifth of its maneuvering thrusters. The spacecraft made the journey intact, at least, proving that Boeing did its job in padding out the systems with enough redundancy to accommodate some failures here and there, but it's never relaxing to be strapped to the sharp end of a rocket and hear the "f word".

As the team stayed aboard the ISS, NASA gamed out the return trip and decided to give themselves some breathing room to play it out. Now, the team should be coming home no earlier than June 26th, though that could easily stretch further out should the Starliner need some extra TLC or investigation before heading home. From the sound of things, NASA is keen to take a breather to learn as much as they can about the failures, since the failures all occurred in the booster section. 

Once they start heading home, that evidence will be cast away to burn up in reentry, losing any chance they have to prevent another occurrence on the next Starliner launch.

In a way, the ability to double up on a short mission's duration like that proves out just how effective the current spacelift capacity is - highlighting Boeing's competing spacecraft, the Crew and Cargo Dragon in their work keeping the ISS supplied. NASA was clear that the new ISS additions could afford to stay up there for a few months, should the mission require it, so there isn't really a loudly ticking clock counting down the minutes for Wilmore and Williams.

FMI: www.nasa.gov