NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck on the ISS since they launched to the station in early June. Now the space agency is close to deciding how to bring them back
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA's Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port.NASA officials are earnestly discussing a plan to bring home two astronauts—who launched on Boeing’s Starliner in early June and have since beenThe space agency isn’t ready to make the decision quite yet.
The two astronauts were scheduled to remain at the orbiting laboratory for just more than a week. But their Starliner capsule, nicknamed Calypso, has faced several issues. Its launch was called off twice, once because of an issue with an oxygen valve and once because of a faulty computer card in the launch system. Mission personnel also monitored a helium leak in the vehicle’s propulsion system that they determined wasn’t serious enough to delay launch.
Now NASA personnel are talking openly about the possibility of moving Wilmore and Williams to a return flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle. NASA had planned for that coming Dragon mission, dubbed Crew-9, to carry four crew members: NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson, as well as Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. If the agency decides to return Wilmore and Williams on a Dragon spacecraft, however, that mission will change.
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