NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were supposed to return to Earth in June after a week in space. But their Boeing Starliner capsule has had problems, causing them to stay at the International Space Station (ISS) for over a month.
The Starliner is having issues like thruster failures and helium leaks. NASA and Boeing are working on fixing these problems, but they haven’t set a new return date yet. They might use SpaceX's Dragon capsule as a backup if needed.
NASA’s Steve Stich mentioned that they’ll return the astronauts when everything is ready. Engineers are checking the thrusters and looking into what caused the issues, which might be related to faulty seals.
Before the launch, there was a known helium leak, but it was considered minor. After reaching space, the Starliner had more leaks and thruster problems, delaying the astronauts' return. Their departure dates in June were canceled.
This delay is a setback for Boeing, which has faced issues with its Starliner program before. Meanwhile, SpaceX has been successful with its missions but is facing some delays of its own.
