The two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been stranded in space for 80 days will stay in space for another six months, NASA officials announced Saturday.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to return to Earth in February, while the Starliner will be brought back unmanned.
Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner back on June 5 — the maiden crewed voyage for the spacecraft — for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission docked to the International Space Station.
The test flight, however, encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA kept the capsule parked as engineers tried to find a solution.
Saturday’s announcement came on the pair’s 80th day in space.
The decision to bring the astronauts home in February was the result of a “commitment to safety,” Nelson explained.
They will return as part of a SpaceX Dragon Crew mission, officials said.
Teams of engineers are still working to sort out the physics of the thruster issues that landed the Starliner into trouble, NASA Associate Administrator James Free added.
Free praised the NASA staff for their hard work in weeks leading up to NASA’s final call on the issue.
“This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” Free insisted.
