NASA updated reporters Wednesday at a news conference, which Boeing did not attend, on the timeline for crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The astronauts have been in space for 63 days with no return date in sight.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS on June 6 on what was the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule. The mission was supposed to be the final step before NASA certified Boeing to fly crews to and from the space station, before faulty thrusters stranded the pair in June.
"We're in kind of a new situation here, in that we've got multiple options," Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's space operations mission directorate and a former agency astronaut, told reporters Wednesday.
"I would say that our chances of an uncrewed Starliner return have increased a little bit on where things have gone over the last week or two," Bowersox said. "But again, new data coming in, new analysis, different discussion -- we could find ourselves shift in another way."
"We don't just have to bring a crew back on Starliner, for example. We could bring them back on another vehicle," Bowersox added. The space agency is expected to make a final decision as early as next week.
"Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program said. "However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open, and so we have been working with SpaceX to ensure that they're ready to respond."
NASA said it is now considering sending only two astronauts, instead of four, on September's SpaceX Crew-9 mission to leave space for Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth on SpaceX Dragon in February 2025. SpaceX has been transporting astronauts to and from the ISS since 2020.
"We're not ready to share specific crew names for the contingency plan," ISS program manager Dana Weigel told Space.com. "We'll go look at future manifests and just see what makes sense for the overall crew compliments going forward."
On Tuesday, NASA announced SpaceX would delay the Aug. 18 launch of its Crew-9 mission, more than a month, to Sept. 24. The delay will give NASA and Boeing more time to repair Starliner's five of 28 reaction control thrusters which misfired during docking at ISS on June 6.
While NASA said Starliner can safely undock from ISS, there is still uncertainty over how its thrusters would operate during the ride back to Earth.
"Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft's integrated propulsion system and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner's return to Earth," NASA said in a statement Tuesday.
Stich told reporters Wednesday that tests on the ground revealed that a small Teflon seal swells under high temperatures, which could be to blame for Starliner's thruster problems.
"That gives us a lot of confidence in the thrusters, but we can't totally prove with certainty what we're seeing on orbit is exactly what's been replicated on the ground," Stich added.
Despite not attending Wednesday's briefing, Boeing has maintained its confidence "in Starliner's return with crew."
"We still believe in Starliner's capability and its flight rationale," the company said in a statement Wednesday, as it also admitted the possibility that a different vehicle could bring the astronauts home.
"If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return."
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