Two NASA astronauts have no set date to return to Earth and are stuck waiting aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to several mechanical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Starliner launched on June 5 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with flight commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and flight pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams onboard, arriving at the ISS one day later.
The mission is part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts could be certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
The pair were originally scheduled to return on June 14 but have since had their return delayed multiple times, and currently do not have a planned date to return to Earth.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement.
“We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.”
