As Boeing’s first crewed Starliner test flight nears the 80-day mark of what was initially an eight-day mission, NASA leaders will give an update on Saturday (Aug. 24) to outline their plan on how to return Starliner’s astronaut crew to Earth.
The press conference, which is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), will include NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other agency leadership as they discuss plans to return Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams home. You’ll be able to watch the press briefing live on this page, courtesy of NASA TV.
The two astronauts launched to the International Space Station on Starliner on June 5, but saw their mission extended over two months as Boeing and NASA studied helium leaks and thruster issues on the spacecraft.
“NASA and Boeing have 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 officials wrote in a statement Thursday (Aug. 22). “The review will include a mission status update, review of technical data and closeout actions, as well as certify flight rationale to proceed with undocking and return from the space station.”
Nelson and NASA leadership will discuss that flight rationale in an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday before the press conference to share the meeting’s results.
Last week, NASA officials said they were studying several options for how to return Boeing’s Starliner and its crew to Earth. Those include the astronauts landing on Starliner as planned or returning Starliner to Earth empty while its astronauts make their own landing on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. A final decision must be made by the end of August to allow time for planning, agency officials said.
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 Program. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is the other. SpaceX has flown nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020 (and several private missions of its own), while Boeing’s Starliner’s current mission, called the Crew Flight Test, is the company’s first of at least six planned crewed missions for NASA under the multibillion-dollar contract.
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