Astronauts stranded on International Space Station, NASA: "There is still no return date"

We were supposed to be away from home and Earth for eight days. A space mission that will last much longer, although it is not known how much longer. In fact, there is still no date for the return of Starlinerthe space taxi of the Boeing launched in June and is still docked at the International Space Station, due to technical problems that prevent the two astronauts from taking off again Butch Wilmore And Suni Williams. NASA said in an update press conference that there is no date at the moment, adding that the data obtained from tests carried out in recent weeks are ready for a review that will probably be carried out next week.

The review should allow the necessary decisions to be made on the Starliner’s re-entry: in fact, last week NASA had also put on the table the possibility for Wilmore and Williams to leave the ISS aboard a SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in February 2025Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space mission operations manager, said the main problem encountered on Starliner, which engineers are working on, concerns the propulsion system.

The US space agency has also discussed potential plans with SpaceX to leave two empty seats on an upcoming Crew Dragon launch for NASA astronauts who became the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner capsule.