NASA Extends Astronauts’ Stay on ISS: Starliner Delays Return Amid Fuel Leak Issues

So astronauts Barry (Butch) Wilmore and Sunita (Suni) Williams will be on the ISS much longer than expected. According to the original plans, they were to stay in space for just a few days and return to Earth in mid-June.

But that was not possible, according to NASA, because the Boeing-made Starliner reported a fuel leak in the last phase of its flight in June and several controls failed. Boeing’s competitor, SpaceX, will bring the astronauts back.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February and Starliner will return without a crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is expected to return in February.

The Starliner should therefore try to return to Earth without a crew in early September, wrote the AP group. The ship is expected to land in the New Mexico desert. For several weeks, NASA and Boeing engineers have been trying to find and fix the cause of the malfunction. According to Stich, the group had a “technical disagreement” with Boeing, as the company said it could ensure a safe return flight with the crew.

According to the AP, the latest decision by the US authority is a relief for Boeing. The company announced after NASA’s statement that it is preparing a ship without workers to return safely. Nelson said that the group is still counting on Boeing and that he is 100 percent confident that the Starliner will fly into space with a human crew again.

Ten years ago, NASA ordered a spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing as part of a cooperation program with commercial organizations. While the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon took place in 2020, Boeing’s Starliner, due to many development delays and subsequent delays, finally took off with astronauts on June 5 of this year.