Astronauts Sunita Williams and Buchvilmore have been stranded in space since June 6.
The world is hoping for their return to Earth soon. However, NASA says that they may still have to spend the next few days in space in uncertainty.
NASA is expected to make a final decision on Saturday about whether to bring Sunita Williams back to life on either Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, the US space agency said.
“NASA’s decision on whether to return Starliner to Earth with astronauts on board is expected no earlier than August 24 (Saturday) at the conclusion of an agency-level review,” the space agency said in a statement.
Williams and Wilmore flew from Earth to spend eight days on the International Space Station (ISS). Their journey has spanned more than two months in space. Both became the first people to fly aboard the Starliner.
Why are both of them stuck?
As the Starliner approached the orbiting lab, the spacecraft encountered several technical problems.
Many thrusters failed. Helium leaked in the propulsion system. Engineers were able to repair four out of five faulty thrusters. Let us tell you that there are 28 thrusters on the Starliner. Despite this, it is not ready for a successful de-orbit to Earth.
Boeing declared the Starliner safe, but NASA officials disagreed. If the US space agency deems the Starliner unfit for travel on Saturday, it will be removed from the orbiting lab without a crew.
Williams and Wilmore will then return aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in February 2025, as NASA has delayed the launch of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the ISS until September 24.
After many failures over several years, Boeing launched its first flight on June 5.
Together with SpaceX, the company signed a contract with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in 2014 to fly missions to and from the space station. Its first uncrewed flight mission in 2019 did not go as planned. The mission is scheduled to be completed in 2022.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been sending astronauts to space on its Falcon 9 rocket since 2020. It has made about 12 flights to the space station so far.
Boeing has invested more than $1.5 billion in its Starliner program.
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