If the company opts to name on SpaceX for the return flight, Wilmore and Williams would want to stay on the house station for six extra months.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch new crew members to the orbiting outpost in September on a mission often called Crew-9. NASA has stated it may alter these plans to ship up two astronauts as a substitute of the initially deliberate 4, after which use the empty seats to carry Wilmore and Williams residence on the finish of the Crew-9 mission in February.
In that case, the Starliner capsule would return to Earth with out a crew, in accordance with NASA.
Bowersox stated Wednesday that whereas no choice has been made but, the company might want to choose a plan quickly with a view to handle assets on the house station and maintain operations in orbit working easily.
“We’re reaching some extent the place, that final week in August, we actually ought to be making a name, if not sooner,” he stated.
Wilmore and Williams’ launch marked the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The mission was designed to be a vital remaining check earlier than NASA may certify Boeing to make common flights to and from the ISS.
However 5 of Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned because the spacecraft was approaching the house station in June, inflicting delays through the rendezvous and docking course of. Helium was additionally leaking from the capsule’s propulsion system throughout flight — an issue that mission managers knew about earlier than Starliner launched into orbit however had stated was unlikely to have an effect on the mission or the astronauts’ security.
Joe Acaba, chief of the Astronaut Workplace at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston, stated that astronauts are educated for contingencies, together with mishaps that will maintain them in house longer than anticipated.
Wilmore and Williams have been utilizing their further time in orbit to conduct scientific experiments and assist house station crew members with upkeep duties.
Acaba stated that whereas the duo has been saved updated on NASA’s decision-making course of, they need to in the end depend on the experience of engineers and mission managers on the bottom.
“They may do what we ask them to do, and that’s their job as astronauts,” Acaba stated.