"We hope to bring the helium leaks for a final resolution this week," NASA Commercial Crew Program Director Steve Stich said on Wednesday. "We hope to get through all that testing this week. ...What we found was there was a leak at the flange area and helium was getting out from that flange area."
Boeing Vice President and Commercial Crew Program Manager Mark Nappi said his corporation and NASA had already resolved more than half of the 30 issues with the Starliner's thrusters.
"We identified 30 specific issues," he said. "Over half of them are closed. All are scheduled to be completed by the end of next week. ...We may have to take those thrusters off and replace some seals we suspect were undersized. We are inspecting those flange areas on future Starliners. There is obviously something going on in that flange area that we do not understand."
Before the flanges were reinstalled to the doghouse setting on the Starliner, a new seal would have to be reinstalled, Stich agreed.
The astronauts arrived as the International Space Station on June 6 and were scheduled to stay there for about a week.