Nasa still does not know what to do about its astronauts stuck in space

Boeing Astronaut Launch

Nasa says that it is still not sure what to do with its astronauts stuck on the International Space Station.

The pair of pilots flew the Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS on 5 June, for what was supposed to be an eight day mission. But the Starliner was hit by troubles both before, during and after the launch – meaning that Nasa decided not to bring them home as planned.

Now Nasa says that has still not decided what it will do about the astronauts to get them safely home. But it suggested that there was a reasonable chance that they will have to wait to come home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft instead.

Nasa is still gathering information to help decide whether it is safe for the two astronauts to come home on the Starliner craft, it said. That decision is meant to happen at the end of next week, or early the week after, Nasa said.

The space agency had previously said that it was aiming to make the decision in mid-August. There is no firm cutoff for when the decision needs to be made about whether they will come back, Nasa said, but it is “getting a lot harder” to keep delaying that decision.

Using a SpaceX flight instead would mean their eight day mission would instead be eight months long. But Nasa stressed that it had done multiple long missions on the ISS, including those of up to a year, and that it would be relying on the data gathered about such lengthy missions to inform their safety.

Nasa representatives also said that the two astronauts – Barry E Wilmore and Sunny Williams – would be “grateful for the extra time” on board the space station. It would be “great to be there enjoying the environment”, said Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator at Nasa’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, and would be “enjoying that great space food” as well as the view out of the window.

“This mission was a test flight... they knew this mission might not be perfect,” said Joe Acaba, Nasa’s chief astronaut. “Human space flight is inherently risky, and as astronauts, we accept that as part of the job.”

He said that he had spoken with the pair about the decision, but that they were waiting for Nasa to analyse the data. “They will do what we ask them to do, and that’s their job as astronauts,” he said.

It also said that it still believes that the Starliner would be safe to return the pair of astronauts in an emergency situation.

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