NASA has postponed the return of two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) for the third time, sparking fears that the crew might face an extended stay in space.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally set to come back to Earth after a nine-day mission. However, their return has been delayed twice this month, leaving the new date uncertain.
The extended mission aims to provide additional time to address technical issues encountered by the spacecraft during its trip to the ISS. According to Boeing, these problems include thruster malfunctions and leaking valves.
Experts speaking to the Daily Mail have suggested that NASA might need to initiate a rescue mission and could potentially seek assistance from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to execute it.
The initial return date was pushed to June 14, before being rescheduled to June 26. NASA is currently assessing potential return dates following two planned spacewalks on June 24 and July 2, with the goal of bringing the astronauts back by early July at the latest.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process. We are letting the data drive our decision-making regarding the small helium system leaks and thruster performance issues observed during rendezvous and docking,” Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told the Mail.
Rudy Ridolfi, former Space System Commander and Space Technology Acquisition Manager, told DailyMail.com on Monday that Boeing may be forced to abandon Starliner and use one of SpaceX’s Dragon capsules to bring the two astronauts home.
“Boeing will still want the capsule back. The service module is the part with all the problems and they will lose that on reentry no matter what they do,’ he said. “The capsule though, it can be returned, autonomously to a hard landing in the U.S. and recovered.”
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