A NASA mission gone wrong.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore60, and Sunita Williams58, are stranded on the International Space Station after their spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner, experienced several malfunctions, the Associated Press reported.
During the June 5 launch of Starliner, the first of its kind with humans on board, a leak occurred in the spacecraft's propulsion line. However, according to the Associated Press, engineers deemed the leak “stable and isolated” and continued the mission.
The next day, however, as Wilmore and Williams approached the space station, four more leaks occurred and five thrusters – a device used to accelerate and maintain position – failed, according to the AP. The crew managed to dock safely with the station, but since June 6, they have been in space on a journey that was originally supposed to last just eight days, according to the source.
Currently, NASA must decide whether the Starliner can be made fit for the return trip to Earth or whether Wilmore and Williams should wait until they can be picked up by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. That means they'll stay at the space station until 2025 (SpaceX will launch its Dragon spacecraft next month on a mission of its own that will last until February, when it can return to Earth), according to the Associated Press.
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