(CNN) – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, have been in space for 63 days, about seven weeks longer than initially expected.
There is still no clear return date in sight.
As analysis continues to understand the problems the Starliner experienced en route to the International Space Station, NASA is exploring several contingency options, the space agency confirmed during a press conference Wednesday. Those contingencies include keeping Williams and Wilmore at the orbiting lab for another six months and bringing them home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle in 2025.
CNN confirmed Tuesday that NASA has not yet begun a “flight readiness review” for the Starliner crew’s return from the space station. The agency had said on July 26 that it would begin that process in the first days of August.
Boeing ship crew could stay in space until 2025
But Boeing and NASA teams are still working on a possible return date as officials evaluate test data and conduct analysis on propulsion problems and helium leaks that hampered the first stage of the Starliner capsule’s flight. Ground tests that mission teams conducted in New Mexico as they worked to understand the problems led to surprising results, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said Wednesday.
The space agency previously confirmed that it found excess heat around some of Starliner’s boosters that was causing Teflon seals to bulge, restricting propellant flow and triggering booster problems. Uncertainty over whether those bulging seals are in fact the root cause of the problem, and how the problem might affect the Starliner vehicle in space, are the basis for disagreements within NASA over how safe it is for the crew to return. on the Starliner, officials revealed at the news conference.
The return of the Starliner spacecraft remains uncertain as officials work to reach an agreement on how the rest of the mission launched on June 5 should unfold.
“I would say our chances of an uncrewed return on Starliner have increased a little bit based on how things have gone in the last week or two,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. , referring to NASA’s internal review processes that must be completed before a return date for the Starliner spacecraft is decided. “But again, new data coming in, new analyses, different discussions, we might find ourselves shifting in another direction.”
NASA has always considered the return of Williams and Wilmore in a SpaceX vehicle as a mission contingency, but the primary goal is to bring the two astronauts home on Starliner. Boeing maintains that your spaceship is safe for astronauts.
However, the space agency announced Tuesday that it will delay the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, a routine flight scheduled to fly with four astronauts to replace the Crew-8 mission aboard the International Space Station.
Crew-9 had been scheduled to take off on August 18, with the expectation that the Starliner capsule would have returned home with its astronauts before then. Now, Crew-9 will not lift off before September 24, NASA said.
“This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing crewed flight test,” NASA said in a statement. press release on Tuesday.
