NASA management have been in deep discussion this week around whether to return the agency's astronauts on board Boeing's misfiring Starliner capsule.
NASA management has been discussing this week whether it should return the agency's astronauts on board Boeing's misfiring Starliner capsule or send back the spacecraft empty.
But the concerns reveal that there is less confidence internally on Starliner than the agency has publicly disclosed. The Boeing crew flight was initially planned to last a minimum of nine days. But it has been extended several times while the company and NASA conduct testing both back on the ground and in space in an attempt to understand the thruster problem.
If Starliner returns empty, the most likely alternative would be to bring the astronauts back using SpaceX's Crew Dragon by removing two astronauts from the Crew-9 mission — currently planned to launch four people in the coming weeks. That would open up two seats for Wilmore and Williams.NASA did not respond to CNBC's request for comment on the ongoing Starliner discussions, but told Ars Technica in a statement that the agency "is evaluating all options for the return.
"We're going to continue to take that hardware apart so that we can finally prove this," Nappi said at the time.
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