NASA: No Decision Yet on Bringing Starliner Crew Home

NASA said Wednesday it's still deciding whether to keep two astronauts at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty. Rather than flying Boeing's Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams would catch a ride on SpaceX's next flight. That option would keep them at the space station until next February. The test pilots anticipated being away just a week or so when they rocketed away in June as Starliner's first crew. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred the capsule's trip to the space station, raising doubts about its ability to return safely and leaving the astronauts in limbo.

NASA officials said they're analyzing more data before making a decision by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week, the AP reports. The thrusters are crucial for holding the capsule in the 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 the four astronauts assigned to the next ferry flight, currently targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams would take the empty seats in SpaceX's Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends.
• Another complication: The space station has just two parking places for US capsules. Boeing's capsule would have to depart ahead of the arrival of SpaceX's Dragon in order to free up a spot.

• Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. "They will do what we ask them to do. That's their job as astronauts," Joe Acaba, NASA's chief astronaut, said at Wednesday's briefing. "This mission was a test flight" and they knew it "might not be perfect," he said. "Human space flight is inherently risky, and as astronauts, we accept that as part of the job."
• Acaba said he had spoken to Wilmore and Williams in the last day and they are "doing fine," the BBC reports. He said they had fully integrated into the space station's crew and "in my office, right now I can watch them working on the ISS." He added: "But we are human, and this is hard on crew members and their families, and we take that into account. But again, as professional astronauts, they are prepared for this."

(More Starliner stories.)