By: Bowen Wang

NASA is the world’s largest space agency, but at times, it still needs help. Recently, two astronauts, Butch Willmore and Suni Williams, were forced to remain on the ISS after they completed a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. This is because NASA and Boeing engineers noticed that the thrusters on the spacecraft were not functioning properly.

The __ will leave the astronauts on the spacecraft for a few additional weeks. You might ask, “Why weeks?” Well, after many major disasters including the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle crashes, scientists and engineers have learned to be more cautious.

The crashes were both caused by carelessness. The Challenger crashed because its tail was never fitted with a drag chute. The Columbia, its sister ship, also crashed because the managers of the rocket had said that when insulating foam struck the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter’s left wing, it wasn’t a big deal. So, when the Columbia reentered the atmosphere, the ship disintegrated.

NASA is now more careful with small problems. Scientists are trying to see what went wrong with __, in an effort to prevent disasters like the Challenger or Columbia. Currently, they do not know what went wrong so they will not launch a failed rocket like the Columbia.

According to the New York Times, “Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said, ‘The vehicle at the station is in good shape. I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space. Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time.’”