(TheConservativeTimes.org) – The two astronauts who were sent up to the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner and have had multiple delays coming home, have finally received an update.
Barry Wlmore and Sunita Williams performed the first crewed flight of Starliner and were supposed to be on the ISS for just one week, but their flight home has been delayed multiple times.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s Administrator, says, “The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety.”
It’s said that they will be hitching a ride on another spacecraft next week to come home. Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that there was “too much risk for the crew” when looking at the Starliners trip back to Earth.
Boeing stated, “We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
SpaceX’s Dragon Crew-9 is going to go up in September with two of the four astronauts assigned to accommodate Wilmore and Williams for their return back home.
Starliner is part of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA, and it was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts would be able to be certified for routine missions to and from the ISS.
Starliner was experiencing issues before their flight took off, and the test flight was even delayed a couple months due to a problem with the oxygen valve. A small helium leak was discovered at the service module which delayed the launch even further.
After the spacecraft docked at the ISS, NASA and Boeing came out saying that there were five small helium leaks, but that there was enough helium for the return of the astronauts. We’ve come to find that this isn’t the case, and now both astronauts have been in the ISS for an extended amount of time.
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