Boeing’s Starliner capsule—crewed by two astronauts—is approaching the International Space Station for docking, after NASA and the aerospace firm said helium leaks were detected on the spacecraft during its flight, which started after years of delays caused by technical issues.
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Starliner is scheduled to dock at the ISS around 1:30 p.m. EDT, about 26 hours after the spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Boeing will stream Starliner’s docking process on X.
Helium leaks were detected on Starliner’s propulsion system during its flight to the station, which caused some of the spacecraft’s 28 thrusters to be unusable, NASA and Boeing said, though astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are safe inside and there are backup thrusters if needed.
Wilmore and Williams will test Starliner’s hatch opening and closing operations and later analyze how the spacecraft configures to the ISS, according to NASA.
The two astronauts will stay on the ISS for eight days with four American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts before returning to Earth.
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SpaceX launched its Starship rocket—the largest in the world—earlier on Thursday, marking the Elon Musk-owned company’s first successful reentry into Earth’s atmosphere with the spacecraft. The rocket landed in the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch and its Super Heavy boosters landed in the Gulf of Mexico just eight minutes after, a first for both. SpaceX has launched an unmanned Starship three previous times, including two previous attempts that exploded shortly after launch and a third attempt that was lost on reentry.