CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft carrying a pair of NASA astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday after a delay as new helium leaks were discovered.

This is the first time that two spacecraft from two different American companies are docked at the ISS.

What You Need To Know

  • 2 new helium leaks were discovered after Starliner launch

  • Issue with a thruster has prevented the Starliner from docking with the ISS on time

The Starliner carrying Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams took off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday at 10:52 a.m. ET.

Originally, the pair were supposed to autonomously dock with the space station’s Harmony module at 12:15 p.m. ET, Thursday, but there was an issue with a thruster and they were told to wait 656 feet (200 meters) outside the floating laboratory’s “keep out sphere,” stated NASA in a live feed.

The next docking opportunity was set at 1:33 p.m. ET., Thursday. One minute later, Starliner was attached to the ISS.

“It’s nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said to mission ground back down on Earth.

This is the first time two American companies are docked with the ISS; the other one being SpaceX’s Dragon from the Crew-8 mission.

The Starliner has had a series of issues that plagued its launch, namely a helium leak in a flange of the Starliner’s service module’s thruster system. The cause of the leak is from a faulty seal.

Get details of the issues that prevent many of the launch attempts here.

However, during their more than 24-hour journey to the ISS, it was discovered that two new helium leaks were discovered, according to NASA.

“To monitor and manage these leaks, the three helium manifolds were isolated. Those manifolds have all been reopened prior to a Starliner height adjust burn, called NHPC. All affected manifolds will remain open for rendezvous and docking operations,” NASA stated.

It is not known if the thruster issue during docking is connected to the helium leaks.

This is the first crewed mission of the Starliner.

The launch of the Starliner, thanks to United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, was a relief, ULA CEO Tory Bruno stated to Spectrum News.

(Boeing built the Starliner and United Launch Alliance — a joint business venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin — built the Atlas V rocket.)

 

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