Astronauts stranded on the International Space Station ( ISS ) by Boeing ’s faulty Starliner may have to wait until 2025 to devolve to Earth .
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore set forth for the ISS onJune 5 , the third and last test of Boeing ’s unexampled Starliner abridgment , and its first launch with a crew . The missionary station was only expected to last for eight days , but due to problems with Starliner , the two stay stranded on the blank station two month later .
The initial launch went to plan , but while in space and not yet docked to the ISS , the crew encounter problem .
" We lost an RCS K , then we lose another one , " Wilmoreexplained in July . " And then you could differentiate the poke , the controller , the capacity was degraded . The handling qualities were not the same . "
" From that point on you could tell that the drive was demean , " Wilmore added . " At the clip we did n’t know why . "
Starliner perform well during accurate tying up with the ISS , and the astronauts get into their new living quarters . They have remained there while the crew and NASA essay to define the problems – include ahelium leak – which prevented them from reelect on board Starliner in June .
Months later , NASA is consider place Starliner home without a work party and collecting the two astronauts with another ballistic capsule .
" As we ’ve say before , our prime option is to retrovert Butch and Suni on Starliner , " Steve Stich , NASA ’s commercial crew computer program director said in an update onWednesday . " However we have done the requisite provision to make certain we have other options open . "
" We have been working with SpaceX to ensure that they ’re ready to answer , " he added , " for a contingence of returning Butch and Suni on Crew 9 if we need that . "
That contingency design would involve sending the Dragon for the next crowd run , but with two empty can for Williams and Wilmore to return in . Stich added that NASA has prepared this contingence design , including distinguish suits quick for the astronauts ' return .
While it ’s good news that NASA has a backup program for get the astronauts home , it ’s not ideal . The next mission to the ISS is scheduled to launch in September and return to Earth in February 2025 . That ’s a very long eight - day trip , and would see the astronaut have an unplanned summertime , fall , and wintertime aboard the space post .
NASA proceed to work out on the preferred pick of returning the two on Starliner .
" But I would say that our luck of an uncrewed Starliner return have increase a little bit based on where thing have go over the last week or two , " Ken Bowersox , NASA ’s director of space operations , add together . " That ’s why we ’re look more closely at that selection to ensure that we can treat it . "
One problem they face is that Starliner was not designed to perform undocking procedures without a crew , consort to sources speaking toArs Technica . A significant software update is need to do so , contributing to the delay . Previous tests of a different Starliner vehicle , however , showed that the workmanship was capable of an uncrewed tying up and undocking , raising questions as to why this version of Starliner did not have that capability .
