The Starliner’s test flight to the International Space Station is meant to demonstrate that the vehicle can safely ferry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit and to assess its various systems in space.
The capsule’s launch, too, faced multiple delays before it finally lifted off on June 5 — years behind schedule and way over its initial budget.
NASA officials suggested in a blog post that although no date for the astronauts’ return is set yet, it could come after a planned spacewalk at the International Space Station on July 2.
There are enough supplies at the space station to accommodate the visitors, and there is no need to hurry the departure, the officials said.
Stich said NASA will conduct a full review before the go-ahead is given for the capsule’s undocking.
Wilmore and Williams are living on the ISS with seven crew members who were already stationed there: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy Dyson and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.
During their extended stay in space, Wilmore and Williams are helping out with tasks at the space station and carrying out other tests as part of NASA’s process to certify the Starliner for future missions.
“The crew’s feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and they know that every bit of learning we do on the Crew Flight Test will improve and sharpen our experience for future crews,” Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Starliner program, said in a statement.
Boeing hopes to eventually conduct routine flights to and from the space station for NASA, similar to the commercial service that SpaceX has been providing the agency since 2020 with its Crew Dragon capsule.
