Starliner astronauts’ return to Earth delayed

NASA has announced that the astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on board Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will be spending more time in space.

The space agency had been working with SpaceX to launch a craft to bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home. They went to the ISS nearly two months ago for a short mission but had an issue with its thrusters causing them to stop working and helium leaks, CNN reported.

The astronauts were only supposed to be in space for a week, but have been on the ISS for more than 60 days, ABC News reported.

Scientists still don’t know what caused the problems, but Boeing said it has narrowed down the root cause.

There had been plans to use a SpaceX Crew-9 mission to bring them home in mid-August, but the Crew-9 mission has been delayed until September.

If Williams and Wilmore cannot use the SpaceX launch to get back to Earth and if they have to use the Boeing spacecraft, then they may not return home until February 2025, CNN reported on air.

It will be the decision of NASA administrator Bill Nelson as to when Williams and Wilmore return, CNN reported on Tuesday.

“We don’t just have to bring a crew back on Starliner for example. We can bring them back on another vehicle,” NASA’s associated administrator for space operations Kenneth Bowersox said, according to ABC News. “In the case that we have with the Starliner crew flight test, the option to either bring the crew home on Starliner or to bring the crew home on another vehicle, we could take either path.”

Bowersox said more “consensus” is needed, but they’re looking at options.

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