- By Aashish Vashistha
- Sat, 29 Jun 2024 02:12 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft with two astronauts onboard including Indian-origin Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore faces uncertainty with no exact return to Earth announced. NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, has stated that the US space agency is considering extending the Starliner mission from 45 to 90 days, as reported by CNN.
Steve Stich on Friday said that the Starliner, which faced issues with helium leaks and thruster outages heading to the International Space Station in early June, will be safe enough to return astronauts on board the spacecraft.
Amid uncertainty of Sunita Williams’s return from space, NASA said that astronauts on International Space Station (ISS), were forced to take shelter for about an hour after a defunct Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces near the space station.
"We're just looking at the timeline to execute (the test in New Mexico) and then review the data." He further said, "And that's what's really the long pole, I would say, determining a landing date,” a NASA official said while addressing a briefing on Friday.
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According to news agency ANI, Stitch and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, also stated that engineers are still unsure about the cause of the Starliner's troubles.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have reportedly integrated with the rest of the crew on the International Space Station and are performing routine tasks.
However, it is not yet clear whether NASA will extend the maximum mission length to 90 days. Stich stated that officials must clear the battery life of the Starliner for this purpose. Although the batteries are being recharged at the space station, he stated that they should function the same way after 90 days as they did during the first 45 days.