Hey, so, you know those two NASA astronauts who have been stranded in space for about two months now? They’re still there. Just chilling. Hopefully not having severe space madness-induced panic attacks like most of us probably would after having been stranded in space with no clear plan on how to get back.
On June 5, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams embarked on an eight-day mission to test Boeing’s Starliner capsule and almost immediately ran into technical problems, like a helium leak that broke five thrusters, which is the big reason they can’t come back home. Despite the issue, they still managed to dock at the International Space Station. The astronauts have been on the ISS for 10 times longer than they had originally anticipated.
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One possible way NASA and Boeing are thinking of bringing them back is returning the Starliner empty while using a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to transport the astronauts back to Earth. This solution could extend the astronauts’ stay on the ISS until 2025 due to the six-month minimum duration for station missions. But then that runs into another problem: the astronauts’ suits are designed specifically for Starliner and are incompatible with SpaceX ships.
On August 24, NASA will hold a press conference where they will announce a strategy to return the astronauts back to Earth. After that, there will be an extensive eternal review at Johnson Space Center where NASA officials will discuss exactly what the hell happened and how to prevent it in the future.
