Boeing Starliner astronauts can't return until 2025

NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams may be stranded in space aboard the Boeing Starliner until 2025 due to constant delaysofficials have announced.

On Wednesday, August 7, the agency held a press conference, where it gave an update on the two astronauts who have been in outer space for 63 days, about seven weeks longer than expected, after their launch on June 5

The initial trip from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to Florida's Space Coast was to take no more than eight days, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

NASA and Boeing are currently debating whether the spacecraft is safe enough to return to Earth or whether they will have to look to their rival for help. Elon Musk using SpaceX to retrieve and bring Wilmore and Williams home, the Wall Street Journal i CNN informed

The final decision is expected to be made in “mid-August,” according to the WSJ.

“I would say our chances of getting an unmanned Starliner back have increased a little bit based on where things have gone in the last week or two,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate. from NASA, according to CNN.

His comment referenced NASA's need to complete an internal review before the agency can set a return date for Starliner.

“But again, new data coming in, new analysis, different debates — we could find ourselves changing in a different way.”

“We could take either path. And reasonable people could choose either path,” Bowersox continued.

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According to CNN, as of Tuesday, Aug. 6, NASA had not yet begun its “flight readiness review,” which would allow the Starliner crew to return from the International Space Station.

During the press conference, Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said that “uncertainty around the thrusters” was one of the concerns currently delaying the return of the two astronauts.

However, before the briefing on Wednesday, August 2nd the company said“Boeing remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with the crew. We continue to support NASA's requests for additional tests, data, analysis and reviews to assert decoupling and landing capabilities safe from the spaceship.”

“We still believe in Starliner's capability and its rationale for flight. If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the necessary actions to configure Starliner for an unmanned return,” a Boeing spokesperson reiterated during the press conference , according to NOW.

During a live International Space Station press conference CBS News on July 10, Williams said he had “a very good feeling in my heart that the spaceship will take us homeno problem.”

That date could now be next February, which is when SpaceX will return with four crew members, according to reports WSJ.