Originally set to return in mid-June, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may be on the station until February, 2025.
During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they have a contingency plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home from the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. If they’re unable to leave sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there
Tests conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility pointed to deformed Teflon seals being a potential cause of the Starliner’s thrusters failing, but the agency isn’t expected to make a final decision on whether or not Williams and Wilmore will return using Boeing’s spacecraft until mid-August.
It seems like there is disagreement within NASA whether it is safe for the astronauts to return on Starliner or not.
Boeing engineers did test on the ground to try to replicate the issue that is occuring on the thrusters. They found thqt the issue isndue to a Teflon seals bulging but they don’t understand precisely why is the seal buldging and when it occurs.
However they feel confident enough that the problem would not happen on the way back to earth. Some people are NASA are not as confident as they are and would like to know the precise cause of the bulging.
About the software: there is a capability in the software for the capsule to undock autonomously.
However it would means resurrecting parameters that have not been used and updated since 2022, there is some reconfiguration needed and testing to make sure it still does what is needed despite the different hardware and software change that happened since then.
It is really not looking good for Boeing right now and I don’t know if the Starliner program will survive this accident.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-official-acknowledges-internal-disagreement-on-safety-of-starliner-return/2/