Si Vis Pacem, Para Vinum © Andrei Martyanov's Blog
... it is becoming an emergency.
Already more than a month late getting back, two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule, officials said Thursday. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing's new Starliner capsule prompted NASA and Boeing to keep them up longer. NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said mission managers are not ready to announce a return date. The goal is to bring Wilmore and Williams back aboard Starliner, he added. “We'll come home when we're ready,” Stich said. Stich acknowledged that backup options are under review. SpaceX's Dragon capsule is another means of getting NASA astronauts to and from the space station. “NASA always has contingency options," he said.
And the Falcon 9 has issues and is grounded. Call Moscow.