When Will Astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore Return To Earth? NASA's Latest Update

New Delhi: NASA on Wednesday provided no fix date for return of two astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore – who are lodged at International Space Station saying it's still deciding wher to keep m at ISS until early next year or send ir troubled Boeing capsule back empty.

Rar than flying Boeing's Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams would catch a ride on SpaceX's next flight. That option would keep m at space station until next February.

test pilots anticipated being away just a week or so when y rocketed away as Starliner's first crew. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred capsule's trip to space station, raising doubts about its ability to return safely and leaving astronauts in limbo.

NASA figuring more data

NASA officials said y're analyzing more data before making a decision by end of next week or beginning of next. se thrusters are crucial for holding capsule in right position when it comes time to descend from orbit.

“We've got time available before we bring Starliner home and we want to use that time wisely," said Ken Bowersox, NASA's space operations mission chief.

Switching to SpaceX would require bumping two of four astronauts assigned to next ferry flight, currently targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams would take empty seats in SpaceX's Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends.

Anor complication: space station has just two parking places for US capsules. Boeing's capsule would have to depart ahe of arrival of SpaceX's Dragon in order to free up a spot.

What Boeing says?

Boeing has said Starliner could still safely bring astronauts home. company earlier this month posted a list of testing that has been done on thrusters since liftoff.

NASA would like to keep SpaceX's current crew up re until replacements arrive, barring an emergency. Those four should have returned to Earth this month, but saw a seventh month ded to ir mission because of uncertainty over Starliner, keeping m up re until end of September. Most space station stays last six months, although some have gone a full year.

Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard space station years ago.

“y will do what we ask m to do. That's ir job as astronauts,” said NAA chief astronaut Joe Acaba.

Eager to have competing services and backup options, NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts to and from space station after shuttles retired in 2011.

SpaceX's first astronaut flight was in 2020. Boeing suffered so much trouble on its initial test flight without a crew in 2019 that a do-over was ordered. n more problems cropped up, costing company more than $1 billion to fix before finally flying astronauts.

With inputs from PTI