Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing‘s new Starliner capsule prompted Nasa and Boeing to keep them up longer.
Nasa’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said mission managers were not ready to announce a return date.
“We’ll come home when we’re ready,” said Stich, adding that the goal is to bring Wilmore and Williams back aboard Starliner. But he admitted that the space agency is considering other options – which could include bringing the pair home on a different spacecraft.