Nasa still deciding if ISS astronauts can go home this year

Nasa officials said that they would take at least another week to determine how much longer two US astronauts will remain on the International Space Station (ISS) because of issues with Boeing’s capsule.

Ken Bowersox, a Nasa associate administrator, said at a news conference on Wednesday (Aug 14) that the agency is doing more analysis on the safety of a return flight and expects to make a final decision at the end of next week or early the week of Aug 26.

“I know everybody would like a date,” he said. “We have got some working dates, but I know that we need to maintain that flexibility.”

Nasa said last week that it was working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX on plans to return two astronauts to Earth in February 2025 in the event that they are unable to travel on the troubled Boeing craft.

Nasa astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been living on the ISS since Jun 6, when Boeing’s Starliner docked with the orbiting laboratory.

During their flight there, the space capsule faced problems, including multiple helium leaks and the failure of some thrusters, the engines the capsule uses to manoeuvre through space.

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Nasa said that it would need to make a decision about the return by the last week of August because of the amount of resources available for Starliner as well as the upcoming traffic schedule for the space station.

Joe Acaba, chief astronaut at Johnson Space Center, said Nasa has been keeping Williams and Wilmore up to date on their findings.

“I do ask for their opinion, but when I talk to them, they are relying on us on the ground to analyse the data and to come up with a decision,” he said. “They will do what we ask them to do, and that’s their job as astronauts.” BLOOMBERG