NASA must decide how to get Boeing Starliner astronauts home

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA officials plan to meet in the next two weeks to decide whether the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test’s two astronauts on the International Space Station will return on the Starliner. Ken Bowersox, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate associate administrator, and other NASA officials held a virtual news conference Wednesday about the Starliner, two months to the day after astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were projected to return to Earth after spending around a week in space following a June 5 launch. “We can juggle things and make things work if we need to extend but it’s getting a lot harder,” Bowersox said. “We’re reaching a point where that last week in August, we really should be making a call, if not sooner.”

NASA last week pushed back the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station to September, from an originally planned departure date of Aug. 18, as it looks to solve the Starliner dilemma. Officials also said during an Aug. 7 press conference that if Wilmore and Williams don’t return on Starliner, they would most likely return on Crew Dragon in February 2025. That would mean Wilmore and Williams would spend about eight months in orbit. NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said he communicates frequently with the two astronauts, each currently on their third stay at the space station, and they remain committed to the mission. “Butch and Suni will be ready to support the direction our agency chooses,” Acaba said. The Crew Flight Test is Boeing’s first manned flight to the space station. It originally dealt with multiple delays before its early June launch. The astronauts arrived at the station June 6 after dealing with helium leaks and thruster issues in flight.