NASA Consider Extending Astronauts' Starliner Mission Up To 3 Months

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• NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon by 2024, with a long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the lunar surface. (Source: NASA. gov) • SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station, marking a major milestone in private spaceflight. (Source: Space. com) • The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning to launch its BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2025, "which will study the planet's magnetosphere and geological activity." (Source: ESA. int) • China's space agency has announced plans to build a lunar base by 2025... which would be the country's first permanent human settlement on the Moon. (Source: SpaceDaily. com) • NASA's Parker Solar Probe has discovered a massive storm on the Sun that is more than 100 times larger than Earth. (Source: NASA. gov) • Russia's space agency Roscosmos has launched a new Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station... marking a significant step in the country's return to human spaceflight. (Source: TASS. ru) I hope you find this information informative and helpful!

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More than three weeks into a mission that was initially projected to last only days, the two astronauts piloting the inaugural crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft do not know when they will return home.

Officials have repeatedly indicated that the Starliner — which encountered issues with helium leaks and thruster outages en route to the International Space Station in early June — will be safe to bring astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home.

Still, Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said Friday that the space agency is considering extending the maximum length of Starliner's mission from 45 days to 90 days. And there is no firm return date on the horizon.

Part of that desired extension is driven by ground tests that Boeing and NASA plan to carry out in New Mexico, seeking to better understand why some of the Starliner's thrusters unexpectedly failed during the first leg of its journey. (Four of the five failed thrusters on Starliner have since been restored; however one thruster is not expected to work for the remainder of the mission.)

"We're just looking at the timeline to execute (the test in New Mexico) and then review the data," Stich said at a Friday briefing. "And that's what's really the long pole, I would say, determining a landing date."

Technical issues on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft have delayed two astronauts from returning home from the International Space Station. Daniel Dumbacher, CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, explains how unplanned difficulties are being addressed, and how long the delays may last.

Stich and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program for Boeing, also said Friday that engineers are still not yet certain about the root cause behind the Starliner's problems.

Part of the goal of carrying out the ground tests while the vehicle is still in space, Nappi said, is to try to whittle down possible reasons the thrusters malfunctioned.