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Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew on the much-delayed first crewed flight of Boeing\u2019s Starliner<\/a> craft, won\u2019t be coming home from the International Space Station until sometime next month, well past their originally planned return date of June 14. <\/a> announced last night that it’s pushing the date of their return trip back even further in order to allow for more reviews into problems that arose with Starliner during its flight, and to avoid conflicts with upcoming spacewalks. As of now, there\u2019s no date set for the flight back to Earth.<\/p>\n Starliner launched on June 5 and delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS about a day later. Their stay was only supposed to last a week or so. During the flight, however, four small helium leaks sprung in the propulsion system, on top of the one that had already been identified prior to launch. And, when Starliner first attempted to approach the ISS<\/a> on June 6 and begin docking, five of its 28 thrusters went offline. Boeing was able to get four of them back up and running. <\/a> also revealed a few days after launch that the teams were looking into an issue with a valve in the service module that was \u201cnot properly closed.\u201d<\/p>\n The space agency had already pushed the date of the return trip back a few times over the last week and most recently landed on June 26, but now says the flight won\u2019t take place until after the spacewalks planned for June 24 and July 2 have been completed. \u201cWe are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking,\u201d said Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cStarliner is performing well in orbit while docked to the space station,\u201d Stich also said. \u201cWe are strategically using the extra time to clear a path for some critical station activities while completing readiness for Butch and Suni\u2019s return on Starliner and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we will want to make for post-certification missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n