NASA is holding a press conference Saturday, August 24, to announce a decision on how to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station.
After been more than two months since the Boeing Starliner launched on what was supposed to be a one-week mission. Following both helium leaks (which were known about before the launch) and problems with the thrusters (which weren’t), the Starliner’s two test pilots — NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — have stayed aboard the International Space Station as NASA and Boeing officials assess if and when it will be safe for them to travel back to Earth.
While originally NASA had indicated it intended to use the Starliner to bring the two astronauts home, and has said that the spacecraft is safe and could be used in an emergency, that has changed in recent weeks as problems have continued to drag on. The issues with the spacecraft’s thrusters continue to be a source of concern, and NASA has indicated that it may consider using a SpaceX Dragon to return the astronauts to Earth instead.
To use a Dragon, the plan would be to send just two new crew members on the next run to the space station, in a mission called Crew-9. These crews are typically made up of four astronauts, but in this case just two new members would travel to the station, and Wilmore and Williams would join them to become Crew-9. They would all then travel home together in February next year.
While this would be presumably the least-risky option, as the Dragon has been working reliably for several years, it would be an embarrassment to NASA and to Boeing and could also cause some logistical headaches around shuffling crew assignments on the space station. NASA is holding a press conference Saturday, August 24, to announce whether it plans to keep working on bringing the astronauts home using the Starliner or whether it will switch to the Dragon instead.
The meeting tomorrow follows an agency-level review of the Starliner mission, where NASA leaders meet to discuss current data and possible outcomes. NASA has also said that its engineering teams have been working on a new model of the thruster mechanics, which should give more accurate predictions of their behavior if they are used to return to Earth.
“This data could help teams better understand system redundancy from undock to service module separation. Ongoing efforts to complete the new modelling, characterize spacecraft performance data, refine integrated risk assessments, and determine community recommendations will fold into the agency-level review,” the agency wrote.
You can watch the NASA briefing using the video embedded below, which begins at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT).