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NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said on Wednesday that the agency would make a final decision on the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams from the International Space Station back home by mid-August.
What Happened: Williams and Wilmore launched into space on June 5 aboard Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) Starliner spacecraft. Though the two were supposed to return in about eight days, technical issues identified with the spacecraft while docking delayed the return journey. NASA and Boeing are currently evaluating the spacecraft's reliability for the return flight.
Stich told media personnel on Wednesday that while the prime focus is on returning the astronauts aboard the Starliner itself, the agency is considering other options, including using SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
The ISS has only two docking ports and the Starliner and Crew 8 spacecraft are already docked to it. Earlier this week, NASA delayed the Crew-9 mission by a month to no earlier than Sept. 24 in a bid to give Boeing Starliner mission managers time to confirm its return to Earth.
Starliner has to undock first from the ISS to free up the port before the Crew-9 mission launches. One of the options that NASA is considering now is to undock the Starliner without a crew and then launch Crew-9 with just 2 astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft instead of four.
The Dragon spacecraft will then return in February 2025 with Wilmore, Williams, and the two Crew-9 astronauts. The plans are tentative, Stich said while adding that a final decision will be made mid-August. The official, however, did not provide a specific date.
Why It Matters: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been marred by several delays since the start. The spacecraft was supposed to have its first uncrewed test flight in 2015 which was delayed up to 2019. The spacecraft then failed to achieve its intended orbit. In 2022, the spacecraft completed its first successful uncrewed flight to the International Space Station.
NASA awarded both Boeing and SpaceX contracts to enable transportation to and from the ISS after retiring its space shuttle. SpaceX sent its first crewed mission to the ISS in 2020 on its Dragon spacecraft and has since then undertaken multiple missions, overtaking its traditional rival.
If the ongoing crewed flight test is successful, Boeing will become the next private company to shuttle astronauts to and from the ISS for NASA, like Elon Musk‘s SpaceX.
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Photo courtesy: NASA
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