LOS ANGELES, Aug 26 – NASA has decided to bring Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth in September, and the two stranded astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will remain at the International Space Station (ISS) until next February, the agency announced on Saturday, reported Xinhua.
“The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risks than necessary for its crew,” NASA said in a release.
NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS on June 6 aboard the Boeing Starliner. They were meant to return after eight days, but have been stuck in space for more than two months due to technical problems of the spacecraft.
NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station.
Since then, engineering teams have made efforts to review a collection of data, conduct flight and ground tests, host independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and develop various return contingency plans.
NASA said Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
