The two American astronauts stranded since June on board the International Space Station might not be rescued until February 2025, NASA announced.
Following a June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled for an eight-day visit to the space station. A series of issues, including five helium leaks and five failures of the reaction control system thrusters on the Boeing-built Starliner, foiled that plan.
Engineers on the ground have tried to troubleshoot the problems. Their efforts have only resulted in the astronaut's return date being extended by months.
NASA indicated on Wednesday that it may send Starliner home uncrewed and work on bringing Wilmore and Williams back to Earth in February on a different spacecraft.
"I would say that our chances of an uncrewed Starliner return have increased a little bit based on where things have gone over the last week or two, and that's why we're looking more closely at that option" Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, said at a news conference Wednesday. "But again, new data coming in, new analysis, different discussion — we could find ourselves shift in another way."
The incident comes at the apex of Boeing's uniquely dismal year following the deaths of several whistleblowers and the company's guilty plea in July to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge following the crashes of two 737 MAX planes.
Mike Grutman, professor of astronautics at the University of Southern California, told the Daily Mail, "It is more likely that SpaceX would be able to provide an additional launch in the foreseeable future to bring the astronauts back.
"It is highly unfortunate that Boeing's Starliner, after so much delay with its flight, continues to face problems," Gruntman continued. "For decades, Boeing was one of the most admired aerospace and defense companies. It is a true national tragedy."
Boeing's Starliner was seen as the next generation of reusable spacecraft. SpaceX's Dragon capsule has been floated as another option to return Wilmore and Williams by sending only two of the original four astronauts in the upcoming Crew-9 launch next month.
"We need to probably decide likely in the middle of August one path or the other to go ahead and meet the launch date for Crew-9" on Sept. 24, said Steve Stich, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew program.