BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are about to enter their fourth week aboard the International Space Station.
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They launched on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on June 5 for what was to be a minimum eight-day stay. Now, they’re in for an extended stay.
Mission managers haven’t landed on a return date for the crew.
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During a teleconference update on Friday, Steve Stitch, NASA’s Commercial Crew manager said, “I want to make it clear that Butch and Suni aren’t stranded in space. Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time.”
Mission managers are continuing their investigations of the spacecraft’s propulsion system performance after helium leaks and thruster issue cropped up early in the flight test.
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“They want to take as much time as possible to sort of test the system out and collect as much data as possible, not only for this flight, but this is important information for any time in the future when they use the Starliner for additional missions,” said Dr. Don Platt, Associate Professor of Space Systems at Florida Tech.
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