NASA still doesn’t know what to do with Starliner astronauts stuck in space

NASA is still deciding what to do about its two Starliner astronauts who are effectively stranded in space, but says a decision will be made in the next two weeks.

Right now, the space agency is looking at a few options for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who departed Earth in early June for the International Space Station (ISS) and were expected to return eight days later. However, the trip was marred by thruster failures and helium leaks, which raised doubts about the Starliner capsule’s ability to return to Earth safely and has left the astronauts in limbo more than two months later.

On a live call to media Wednesday, NASA officials said they’re analyzing more data before making a decision by the end of next week or the beginning of the next.

They have to decide whether they will keep Wilmore and Williams at the ISS until early next year, when they could catch a ride back to Earth on SpaceX’s next flight in February 2025. The troubled Boeing-built capsule, in that case, would be sent back to Earth empty.

“We’ve got time available before we bring Starliner home and we want to use that time wisely,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief.

Switching to SpaceX would require bumping two of the four astronauts assigned to the next ferry flight, targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams would take the empty seats in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends.

NASA said another logistical issue is at play, as well: the ISS only has room for two U.S. capsules at a time, meaning the Starliner would have to depart ahead of the arrival of SpaceX’s Dragon, to give the newly-arriving spacecraft a place to park.

SpaceX currently has a crew of four working at the ISS. While that crew was scheduled to return to Earth this month, they saw an additional month added to their scheduled stay of six months due to the uncertainty over Starliner.

Despite a litany of issues for the Starliner, which have plagued the capsule almost since inception, Boeing has repeatedly said they have full confidence in the vessel.

However, Dr. Simeon Barber, a space scientist at Open University, told the BBC he believes there is very little information that could convince those at NASA who are concerned about a safe return aboard the troubled Starliner.

“It seems that there are decision makers at NASA who are unconvinced that a safe return can be guaranteed, which is why they have brought in experts to look through the data to try and diagnose the fault in a small component in a complex propulsion system that is in space.

"It is hard to see how that will be possible, so it feels to me that we are heading inexorably towards a return on SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraf.”

Starliner’s June launch marked a high-stakes test mission required before NASA could certify the spacecraft for routine astronaut flights.

In July, Williams and Wilmore appeared in a NASA-hosted livestream from the ISS and said they felt confident the Starliner would get them home safely. They also said they were happy to spend extra time in space and were busy helping the ISS crew and running various experiments and tests while in orbit.

Wilmore said during the livestream they went into the mission knowing there would be kinks, noting, “This is the world of test. This is a tough business.”

“Human spaceflight is not easy in any regime, and there have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that’s ever been designed, and that’s just the nature of what we do,” Wilmore said. “You know that mantra, ‘Failure is not an option."

“They will do what we ask them to do. That’s their job as astronauts,” said NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba on Wednesday, highlighting the flexibility required by the job.

From the beginning, the Starliner project has been massively overbudget and plagued by setbacks and delays. And since liftoff, the capsule has had five helium leaks, five manoeuvring thrusters go dead and a propellant valve fail almost completely, prompting the crew in space and mission managers in Houston to spend more time than expected pursuing fixes mid-mission.

The latest in-flight problems follow years of other challenges Boeing has faced with Starliner, including a 2019 uncrewed test failure where dozens of software glitches, design problems and management issues nixed its ability to dock to the ISS.

A 2022 repeat uncrewed test had a successful docking, but uncovered additional software issues and problems with some of the capsule’s thrusters.

Eager to have competing services and backup options, NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttles retired in 2011.

SpaceX’s first astronaut flight was in 2020. Boeing suffered so much trouble on its initial test flight without a crew in 2019 that a do-over was ordered. Then more problems cropped up, costing the company more than $1 billion to fix before finally flying with astronauts on board.