Washington:

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner test flight, carrying NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, has been stuck in space for the past two months. The journey, originally an eight-day mission, has now completed 80 days in space.

NASA officials will provide an update on the mission on Saturday, August 24, detailing their strategy for bringing the astronauts back to Earth. The press conference is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). It will be headlined by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson along with other agency representatives. You can watch the live telecast on the NASA app and its YouTube channel at 10:30 pm IST.

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were sent on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5. However, the pair’s return was postponed indefinitely due to helium leaks and many thruster malfunctions on the spacecraft. 

To comprehend the technical issues, NASA and Boeing have collected information about the spacecraft’s helium and propulsion systems from both space and the ground.

According to the official statement, the review scheduled for later on Saturday will cover a mission status report, closeout actions, and a review of technical data. It will also certify flight rationale to proceed with undocking and return from the space station.

Meanwhile, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have integrated with the rest of the crew currently aboard the International Space Station and are conducting routine tasks.

As part of its private Crew Program, NASA selected two private spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The present trip of Boeing’s Starliner, the Crew Flight Test, is the company’s first of at least six scheduled crewed missions for NASA under the multibillion-dollar contract. SpaceX has performed nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020 apart from numerous private missions of its own).