"60 Days in Space: Why Boeing Starliner Astronauts Broke All the Rules and What It Means for the Future!"

 utch Wilmore and Suni Williams – two veteran NASA astronauts who piloted the first manned test flight of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft – have now been in space for 63 days, about seven weeks longer than originally expected.

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There is still no firm return date, and NASA has now made it clear that the astronauts may not return home on Starliner at all.

SpaceX, Boeing's rival under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, may be selected to bring Williams and Wilmore home. 

The move could potentially extend the astronauts' stay on the International Space Station by another six months, pushing them back to 2025, agency officials said in a news conference on Wednesday.

Comments from NASA leaders show a stunning turnaround for the space agency. To date, officials have repeatedly indicated that Williams and Wilmore will likely return home on the Starliner, and a backup scenario involving the Crew Dragon has been mentioned as a mere possibility. 

However, an update on Wednesday showed that SpaceX's vehicle is quickly becoming a serious option. “I think our chances of an uncrewed Starliner returning have improved quite a bit based on the circumstances that have transpired over the last week or two,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate. 

referring to NASA's internal review process. that must be completed before Starliner's return date is set. “But again, new data coming in, new analysis, different discussions – we could be experiencing a shift in the other direction.”

Officials said the space agency has until around “mid-August” to make a final decision.Boeing propulsion problems

on Tuesday that NASA had not yet initiated a “flight readiness review” for the return of the Starliner crew from the space station. 

The agency had said on July 26 that it would begin the process in the first few days of August. But Boeing and NASA teams are still working on a possible return date for the mission that launched on June 5, as officials evaluate test data and conduct an analysis of propulsion problems and a helium leak that hampered the first stage of the Starliner capsule's flight.

Ground tests the mission team conducted in New Mexico as they worked to understand the problem yielded surprising results, Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said Wednesday.

The space agency previously said it found excessive heat around some of Starliner's thrusters caused Teflon seals to swell, restricting propellant flow and triggering thruster problems.

Uncertainty over whether bulging seals were truly the root cause of the problem – and how the problem might affect the Starliner vehicle in space – is at the heart of the dispute within NASA over how safe it is for the crew to return to the Starliner, officials said at a news conference.

NASA officials are “increasingly uncomfortable with the uncertainty surrounding the thrusters,” Stich said. As NASA works to reach a consensus on the possible root cause of the problem and how much danger it might pose to the return of the Starliner crew, the space agency has been more seriously considering alternative routes home to Williams and Wilmore.

Neither Boeing nor SpaceX officials could be reached for comment during Wednesday's briefing. Boeing maintains that, in its view, Starliner is safe for the return of astronauts, according to Boeing's statement on Friday.Starliner emergency planning

Officials said they have several return scenarios they are considering if the Starliner is deemed unsafe to bring Williams and Wilmore home.

One option is to launch the planned SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew-9, with two astronauts on board instead of four. This would leave two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on Crew-9's return flight, but it would also make the astronauts part of Crew-9's overall rotation on the International Space Station.  

That means Williams and Wilmore will remain on the station for an additional six months – the duration of a routine mission to the ISS – so they return until at least February 2025.

In this case, the Starliner would be allowed to fly home empty. 

And NASA must then decide whether the data the mission collects on these flights is enough to give the space agency the confidence to officially certify Starliner to make routine trips to orbit.

However, NASA notes, there is no certainty that the space agency needs an emergency plan at all. “We have not agreed to this plan,” Stich said. “In other words, we have made every effort to ensure these plans come to fruition; we have suits identified for flying on Crew-9 (for Williams and Wilmore to wear aboard Crew Dragon).

But we haven't implemented it formally yet, because that's the path we're going down.”

Stich added that returning Williams and Wilmore to Starliner remains the “top” option.Possible backup plan But interestingly, NASA announced on Tuesday that it was postponing the launch of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission.

Crew-9 is scheduled to lift off as soon as August 18 – with the hope that the Starliner capsule will return home with its astronauts before that date. Now, Crew-9 will not lift off before September 24, NASA said, giving the agency more flexibility to make decisions regarding the use of the Starliner contingency plan.

“This adjustment provides more time for mission managers to complete planning for the agency's return of the Boeing Crew Test Flight,” NASA said in a news release Tuesday.

But there are still some complications as to whether NASA chooses to fly Williams and Wilmore home on Crew Dragon or not.

“Shutting down our main line to bring Butch and Suni home on the Starliner caused us to take additional risks across our mission profile – so we had to balance all those risks,” Bowersox said.

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