‘A long way from that’: NASA not ‘writing off Boeing’ after Starliner mission failure

WASHINGTON – NASA says it’s sticking with Boeing’s Starliner for future crewed missions despite the capsule’s failure to bring home two astronauts who remain stuck on the International Space Station.

In the first of two news conferences Friday ahead of a post-hurricane rocket launch Saturday that’s a rescue mission of sorts, associate administrator Jim Free expressed confidence in the troubled spaceship’s future flying crew to the ISS.

“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” Free said.

NASA’s third highest-ranking executive said he was proud of what Starliner was able to achieve during the Crew Flight Test like docking Wilmore and Williams to the space station.

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After nearly three months into what was expected to only be a mission lasting a week or two, NASA decided to return Starliner to Earth without the crew members due to an uncertainty of how failing thrusters would perform.

Starliner also suffered from helium leaks during CFT-1 before it landed safely.

“We’re gonna look at all the data that came back from this,” Free said. “So I think we’re a long way from that.”

Crew-9 had originally been a crew of four space travelers but was cut to two so that there would be room to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, who have been at the space station since June.

Beyond that, Crew-9 was delayed on Tuesday to no earlier than 1:17 p.m. Saturday in light of Hurricane Helene. Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague and Alex Gorbunov arrived at Kennedy Space Center the Saturday prior.

Should the launch take place as planned on Saturday afternoon, a post-launch news conference is set for 3 p.m.

Participants include:

• NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy

• Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate

• Dana Hutcherson, deputy program manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program

• Dina Contella, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program

• Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX

ClickOrlando.com will plan to stream the news conference live at the top of this story.

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