"We're reaching where that last week in August, we really should be making a call, if not sooner," Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, told reporters.
During Wednesday's briefing, NASA provided few new details about Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, or any plans to bring them home after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft developed helium leaks and propulsion problems as they docked at the ISS on June 6. The astronauts had been scheduled to return to Earth a week later after testing Starliner for NASA certification.
Bowersox started Wednesday's update by saying it would not include "any major announcements."
"We require independent elements in key decisions within human spaceflight, including this one we are discussing today: the return of our crew and the Boeing Starliner," said Russ DeLoach, chief of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
Bowersox added that data analysis on the Boeing Starliner will be ready for a board review "by the middle to end of next week," then a flight readiness review would occur "around the end of next week or the beginning of the following week."
"We've got some flexibility there," he added. "I know everybody would like a date."
Wilmore and Williams were making the first crewed test flight of Boeing Starliner, when five of the capsule's thrusters malfunctioned as it was approaching the space station. The thrusters malfunction, which is a separate issue from the helium leaks in Starliner's propulsion system, delayed the capsule's docking.
If NASA decides not to fly Wilmore and Williams aboard Starliner, the space agency said last week it would consider using one of SpaceX's Dragon capsules to bring the astronauts back to Earth early next year.
NASA would send only two astronauts, instead of four, on September's SpaceX Crew-9 mission to leave space for Wilmore and Williams to return on SpaceX Dragon in February 2025. Starliner would return to Earth without a crew.
The space agency has developed a contingency plan if Starliner undocks before Wilmore and Williams leave the ISS. Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator at NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, said the two astronauts could return unsuited in Crew-8 in the event of an emergency. He added that extra SpaceX flight suits would be flown up on the Crew-9 Dragon for their scheduled trip home.
NASA officials also said they talked with Crew-9 on Tuesday about the possibility of impacts to their flight next month.
"As professionals they're doing great," NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba told reporters. "We are all concerned for our crew that is on orbit and are willing to do whatever it takes to support those crew members."
As the return of Wilmore and Williams remains up in the air for now, NASA plans to launch an uncrewed Progress spacecraft Wednesday night to bring "nearly three tons of food, fuel and supplies" to the space station.
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