Starliner’s short test flight is still getting longer and may continue beyond Christmas and New Year

From space flight was supposed to be about eight days long for the astronauts in June.

The new Starliner ship would fly to the ISS space station. After about a week it would return back to the ground.

It didn’t happen like that. The Starliner docked at the ISS station on June 6, but not without problems.

The ship is still stuck in position. The Starliner’s third month on station just began. After more than 60 days, the return has still not been arranged.

United States the space administration Nasa and various media now say that the two astronauts of the Starliner may stay on the station for as many as eight months.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore61, and Sunita Williams58, would not return to Earth until February 2025, and on a different ship than the one they left on.

They would probably be brought to Earth by another private spaceship, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Another option is Russia’s reliable Soyuz.

Boeing company The Starliner test flight was supposed to test how the brand new spacecraft obeys the controls and how its equipment works, says the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC.

The ship did not play as expected. Five of the 28 rocket nozzles controlling the Starliner were not working when the ship docked with the ISS station on June 6, according to the website Space.com.

There were also leaks in the helium gas that controls the movements of the nozzles. Throttle and nozzle control are located in the Starliner service module. It’s under the pilots quarters.

That service module is to be destroyed on the return flight in the heat of the atmosphere as the Starliner approaches Earth.

Space engineers it is therefore best to investigate steering problems now, even if the ship goes down without problems.

The Starliner is set to become the second US private ship to carry people to the ISS.

Those following the industry are even talking about starting some kind of taxi service in space. You could book and order a ship like a taxi.

There are so many risks associated with the return flight that the Starliner might return to Earth empty. The ship’s computers would then be responsible for steering.

Nasa told media representatives on Wednesday that no decisions have been made about the return. The final decision will be made around the middle of August.

“Of course we want to bring Butch and Sun to Earth on the Starliner,” said Nasan Steve Stich According to the BBC. He is in charge of NASA’s commercial flight program.

“Of course, we have made sure that we have other options.”

“Are busy here,” said Williams to reporters from the station.

Both are experienced astronauts. Before the Starliner, Wilmore had flown in space twice, Williams four times.

Starliner’s problems are a bad blow to Boeing.

A large aerospace company started developing the Starliner in the 2010s. It was and still should be an alternative to SpaceX’s Dragons.

Boeing hoped that the Starliner’s first flight by astronauts would pave the way for regular use of the Starliner.

Space X’s Crew Dragon has already routinely flown to the station. The next flight in September would already be Crew Dragon’s ninth.

If Wilmore and Williams will stay in space for eight months, not a record-breaking long stay.

Russian Valery Polyakov spent 437 days in space on the Mir space station in the mid-1990s. Another Russian Oleg Kononenko has lived a total of more than a thousand days in space.