 While NASA and Boeing officials say they're confident Starliner would be safe to fly back to Earth in an emergency, they're leveraging the extra time in orbit to prevent the problems from repeating on future missions. Any direct inspection of the leaks and thrusters needs to be done in space because they're located on Starliner's service module, a portion of the spacecraft that is jettisoned during the return flight and burns up as it reenters Earth's atmosphere.