[Photo Credit to Pixabay]

The Boeing Starliner faced a cascade of technical issues that tested its resilience during both launch and space operations.

On the morning of June 5, NASA veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were finally launched towards the International Space Station.

The Boeing Starliner was a crewed mission for the commercial spacecraft, creating a second American transportation system from the previous SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to carry astronauts to the space station.

Originally planned for May 6, Starliner’s liftoff was canceled just two hours prior to launch because the engineers discovered a faulty valve on the Atlas 5 rocket.

Consequently, it was pushed to May 17, but the mission fell further back to June 1 due to trouble with the countdown computer from a helium leak.

Yet again, minutes before takeoff, crew members identified power issues with the ground equipment, delaying the flight once more to June 5.

Finally, NASA and Boeing announced that the ship was cleared for launch.

The astronauts were able to dock on the International Space Station, joining the seven previously stationed crew members, despite experiencing a rough patch: the starliner had problems with five of the 28 reaction control system thrusters, four of which were eventually brought back online.

However, on June 9, despite the initial plan of staying docked for eight to ten days, NASA and Boeing announced that the departure back to Earth has been delayed to June 18, upon detecting five helium leaks.

Helium is a vital part of the spacecraft as it supports reaction control system thrusters which help them fire.

As the engineers are unable to examine the physical hardware, NASA and Boeing wanted to give the crew members as much time to review telemetry and test scenarios to prevent additional problems upon departure.

Therefore, they were to complete two spacewalks, with the aim to remove the faulty electronics box from a communications antenna, which were planned on June 13.

However, after 12 days of docking, it was announced again on June 18 that the departure shifted to June 26.

As the crew were unable to carry out the spacewalks initially planned on June 13 due to suit discomfort, they had to reschedule for June 24.

Yet again, another delay was announced, with the spacewalks re-planned for Monday and July 2, pushing back the planned departure to an undetermined new date.

Thankfully, though the craft had several helium leaks, only seven hours of helium is needed to return back to Earth, and Starliner has more than ten times that amount.

Furthermore, officials stated that there are enough supplies at the space station to accommodate all astronauts, so there is no need to hurry with departure.

With their extended stay, Starliner crew members are helping out with tasks at the space station and carrying out other tests as part of NASA's procedure for future missions.

All in all, if there is a moral from all of these setbacks from the Boeing Starliner mission, it would be to stay persistent no matter how many things go wrong.