Anish Vij
The two astronauts who have been stuck in space for over two months might have to wait until 2025 before they are rescued.
Starliner’s test pilots Barry Wilmore, 61, and Sunita Williams, 58, embarked on what was supposed to be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 June.
Though their return was not to be after thruster and leak problems hit Boeing’s Starliner capsule after its lift-off.
It was the first time an actual crew was on board the aircraft.
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NASA is still looking at many different options to bring back the astronauts, and this includes using rival SpaceX capsule Crew-9, if coming back on the Starliner proves to be too risky.
“NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner’s return,” NASA said in a statement.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich explained on Wednesday (7 August) that the duo's only choice could be to hop on Crew-9’s return flight in February 2025.
“We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency,” Stich said.
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“We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place.
"Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open.
"I think Butch and Suni are ready to do whatever we need them to do."
"When we started this mission, it was a test mission. We knew that it potentially had a higher risk, Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, added.
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"We have to compare all those risks and we'll weigh all that as we make our final decision."
Thankfully, the two-person crew will have plenty of food supplies if they were to stay up in space for that long.
Supplies are topped up every 90 days or so and the good news is that space food can last between nine months and five years before it goes off.
And if we ever attempt to fly to another planet, then the food that goes with the crew is going to need to last for five years.
Freeze-dried and rehydratable foods are the order of the day, though astronauts need to be careful not to spill their meals.