NASA to decide on how to bring home stranded astronauts by end of the month
Al Jazeera
Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams were stranded after problems emerged with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
NASA has said it will decide by the end of the month how it will bring home two astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) when their Starliner spacecraft malfunctioned.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams took off for the ISS on June 5 as the crew on the Boeing-built Starliner’s first crewed flight.
They were meant to be in space for eight days but found themselves stuck on the ISS after the Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned.
At a news conference on Wednesday, NASA said it was still analysing thruster data but would need to make a decision soon. The thrusters are crucial for holding the capsule in the right position when it descends from orbit.
“We’re reaching a point where that last week in August we really should be making a call, if not sooner,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
