Due to ongoing delays, officials announced that NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams may be onboard the Boeing Starliner until 2025.
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The astronauts went up into space from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Space Coast on June 5.
A little more than two months after Wilmore and Williams were launched into space, NASA announced an update on Wednesday, Aug. 7. It was revealed that the duo have been up in space for 64 days, which is approximately seven weeks longer than originally planned. The initial trip into orbit was only supposed to be no more than eight days, but there were issues.
Now, Boeing and NASA are trying to figure out when the Starliner astronauts can return home. The organizations’ final decision is expected to be made by “mid-August.”
“I would say that our chances of an uncrewed Starliner return have increased a little bit based on where things have gone over the last week or two,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, per CNN.
Bowersox was referencing NASA needing to do a complete internet review before it can make its final decision of when the astronauts can return. “But again, new data coming in, new analysis, different discussion,” Bowesox continued. “We could find ourselves shift in another way. We could take either path. And reasonable people could pick either path.”
As of Tuesday, Aug. 6, NASA has yet to begin its review, which will allow Boeing Starline astronauts to return.
NASA and Boeing May Tap SpaceX to Help Bring Starliner Astronauts Back
Meanwhile, it’s been reported that NASA and Boeing may tap SpaceX to get the Starline astronauts back on Earth.
“We’re in a kind of a new situation here, in that we’ve got multiple options,” Bowersox pointed out. “We don’t just have to bring a crew back on Starliner, for example. We could bring them back on another vehicle.”
Due to the Starliner situation, Crew-9, SpaceX’s ninth operational flight to the ISS will launch on Sept. 24 instead of Aug. 18. This is due to NASA being able to send only two astronauts up on Crew-9. However, this means that NASA will bring the Starline astronauts with two returning crew members in Feb. 2025.
NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich pointed out that Starliner can still safely undock from the International Space Station (ISS). However, the issue is the shuttle’s thrusters. He revealed that a poppet valve in Starliner’s thrusters has been “heating up and extruding and […] contracting” in ground testing.
Stitch noted that if the crew could figure out what’s causing the poppets to have issues, that would give his team “additional confidence” to move forward with bringing the astronauts home.