Astronauts brought to the International Space Station by Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft are still stranded there.
NASA is considering partnering with SpaceX to rescue the astronauts as concerns about Boeing continue, despite its insistence that the spacecraft can do the job.
Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who flew to the ISS on June 6 in Boeing’s Starliner, have been stuck there since due to malfunctions in several thrusters and helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion system.
NASA officials have had doubts about using Starliner to bring them back since, and the agency has been reportedly stalling to deal with internal dissent over the situation. The agency on Tuesday pushed back a planned SpaceX launch of a new ISS astronaut crew, delaying it from mid-August to Sept. 24.
NASA officials are scheduled to discuss Starliner during a briefing Wednesday.
Boeing thinks Starliner is ready to fly after its in-orbit and on-the-ground testing revealed data that supported “flight rationale,” a NASA term for a space operation that is safe enough to pursue, for using the vehicle to bring back Wilmore and Williams.
But NASA continues to have doubts. SpaceX has been used by the agency before to deliver supplies and astronauts using its rockets, but so has Boeing.
NASA’s concerns could emanate from other Boeing controversies as well as the company reels from in-flight incidents such as one in which a plane’s rear door ripped off and fell into a backyard in Oregon. The company already endured controversy due to the deadly crashes of its 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019.
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Consumers have even been afraid to use the company’s planes, changing their flights to avoid them. Regardless, NASA will have to find a solution to bring the astronauts home after their planned weeklong mission has been long extended.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who has been to the ISS during his tenure as an astronaut, was recently denied the opportunity to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate after she chose Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) instead. There were rumors Kelly could have helped save the ISS from its eventual demise if he were chosen as Harris’s vice president.