Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore might be down to earth, but they’re still stuck in space.
NASA shared an update on their two crew members who have been stranded on the International Space Station since early June due to malfunctions on their spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner.
While their mission has now lasted more than two months, as opposed to its intended eight days, the organization shared Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 60, will need to wait a little longer for the plan to bring them home.
During an Aug. 14 teleconference, NASA confirmed both astronauts are doing well aboard the ISS, with chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Joe Acaba noting unexpected delays are something for which astronauts prepare.
“It’s part of our jobs,” he explained. “We realize that launch dates may slip, mission durations may change in real time, so again as professionals, they’re doing great.”
Acaba’s colleague Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, shared his team will likely complete their analysis on the best way to bring their astronauts home within a week, after which a formal review will be conducted within the last two weeks of August.
