Watch on
As Boeing’s first crewed test flight of the Starliner approaches the 80-day mark of the original eight-day mission, NASA leadership will provide an update on Saturday (Aug. 24) outlining their plan for returning the Starliner’s astronaut crew to Earth.
The press conference, which was held for the Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EDT (5:00 p.m. GMT)NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other agency leaders will be on hand to discuss plans to bring Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams home. You can watch the press conference live on this page, courtesy of NASA TV.
The two astronauts launched to the International Space Station on June 5 on the Starliner, but their mission was extended by two months as Boeing and NASA investigated helium leaks and engine problems on the spacecraft.
“NASA and Boeing have been collecting data on the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion and helium systems both in space and on the ground to better understand ongoing technical challenges,” NASA officials wrote in a statement Thursday (Aug. 22). “The review includes a mission status update, a review of technical data and closure actions, and confirmation of flight authority for undocking and return from the space station.”
Nelson and NASA leadership will discuss that flight logic on Saturday as part of an internal review of the agency’s test flight readiness at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before announcing the results of the meeting at a press conference.
Last week, NASA officials said they were reviewing several options for how Boeing’s Starliner and its crew could return to Earth. They include having the astronauts land on the Starliner as planned or having the Starliner return to Earth empty while its astronauts land themselves on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. A final decision must be made by the end of August to allow time for planning, agency officials said.
Boeing’s Starliner is one of two commercial spacecraft selected by NASA under its Commercial Crew Program to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is the other. SpaceX has conducted nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020 (and several private missions of its own), while Boeing’s Starliner’s current mission, called the Crew Flight Test, is the company’s first of at least six planned crewed missions for NASA under the multibillion-dollar contract.
