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Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams before takeoff (Pic: AFP)
NASA has announced that Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will return next February, outlining their plan on how to return Starliner's astronaut crew to Earth. The two astronauts from the flawed Boeing mission will return to Earth with SpaceX.
"NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February and that Starliner will return uncrewed," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters.
80 days in space already
The update on Boeing's first crewed Starliner test flight comes as Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore near the 80-day mark of what was initially an eight-day mission
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who launched to the International Space Station aboard Starliner on June 5, had their mission extended by over two months while Boeing and NASA investigated helium leaks and thruster problems on the spacecraft.
NASA and Boeing gathered data, both in space and on the ground, regarding the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion and helium systems to better understand the ongoing technical challenges.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test launched on June 5 on a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Commercial flight to space
It is an end-to-end test of the Starliner system as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Programme. Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is one of two commercial vehicles NASA picked to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station under its Commercial Crew Programme. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule is the other.
Since 2020, SpaceX has conducted nine crewed missions for NASA, along with several private ventures. In contrast, Boeing's Starliner is currently on its inaugural crewed mission, known as the Crew Flight Test, marking the beginning of at least six planned crewed flights for NASA under their multibillion-dollar contract.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
