By: Kevin Lee

Boeing’s Starliner flight came into crisis as two Nasa astronauts are now stuck on the ISS.

On June 5th, 2024, the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner blasted off into orbit. The crew was made up of two astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, both former U.S. Navy test pilots. On the journey to the International Space Station, engineers spotted a helium leak onboard the starliner. They needed to get the rocket to the I.S.S. fast.

While docking to the floating lab, the docking thrusters malfunctioned. Five out of the 28 thrusters were all it took to delay the docking with the I.S.S. Four of the thrusters rebooted, but one stubbornly didn’t.

Even after docking, it was and still is unclear when the return date is.

The planned eight-day mission has now extended to about a month. Both Boeing and Nasa delayed the duo’s return to collect more data on the helium leaks and thruster issues, thus stranding the crew on the I.S.S.

But this wasn’t the first time the flight ran into trouble. The mission was meant to be in 2017.. It wasn’t only until six years later that the first attempt at a manned flight on the Starliner was made. On June 1st, 2023, the flight on the Starliner was delayed due to a few problems with the parachute. Almost a year later on May 6th, 2024, the flight was delayed again due to the faulty oxygen valve.

On June 1st, 2024, exactly a year after the first attempt, the flight was aborted. This time, Boeing scheduled another attempt for just four days later. That’s when they finally achieved liftoff.

Currently, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will have to stay on the I.S.S. for some time. We can only hope for the best for the duo.