American astronauts Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams are stuck in space — for now — as NASA and Boeingwork through issues with the Starliner spacecraftthat brought them up to theInternational Space Station (ISS).
Starliner is a space capsule built by Boeing as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, an initiative where private companies provide private spaceflight services to the ISS. Rival SpaceX also provides such services.
Wilmore (flight commander) and Williams (pilot) were at the helm of the Boeing-built capsule in its first crewed test flight to the ISS, which overcame pre-flight technical problems to dock with the space station on June 6.
But persistent issues involving helium lines into the thrusters and the propulsion system generally have kept the Starliner moored to the ISS ever since, with NASA and Boeing teams still working to safely return the astronauts to Earth.
Currently, NASA has outlined two options — either fix the issues so the astronauts can pilot Starliner back to Earth, or return Starliner to Earth ‘uncrewed'.
That second option would leave Wilmore and Williams to come home with SpaceX's Crew-9 mission in February 2025 — prolonging their stay from an initially planned eight days to around eight months.
There are unquestionablyhealth risks associated with space travel, but astronauts like Wilmore and Williams are highly-trained and experienced at living aboard........