NASA considers keeping Boeing astronauts on space station until February
NASA is considering keeping the astronauts who flew Boeing's capsule to the space station there until February as a result of issues the Starliner encountered midflight.
NASA is considering keeping the two astronauts who flew Boeing's capsule to the International Space Station there until February as a result of issues the spaceship encountered midflight.
The agency said Wednesday that it is still evaluating options for how to bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth safely, and that no plan has been made yet. But officials acknowledged more openly than before that they may decide to use a SpaceX capsule instead.
“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said Wednesday in a news briefing. “However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open, and so we have been working with SpaceX to ensure that they’re ready to respond.”
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the space station on June 6 on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The initial plan called for them to stay in space for about a week. But problems with five of Starliner’s thrusters and helium leaking from the capsule’s propulsion system have stranded the astronauts there for more than two months as engineers on the ground gather data about the issues and attempt to troubleshoot.
The mission was designed to be the final step before the agency could certify Boeing to conduct routine crewed flights to and from the ISS. The fate of that process is now up in the air.
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