NASA has continued to turn itself into a pretzel over whether Boeing's CST-100 Starliner — now two months past its original return date — can be used to bring its crew back to Earth and whether a failure to do so would be classified as a mishap.
Astronauts can be stuck in space for eight months, says Nasa | BBC News
The briefing, which did not include any Boeing personnel, hinted at the concerns behind the scenes at the US space agency as staff grapple with the issue of Starliner's problematic thrusters amid the knowledge that a proven and operational spacecraft, in the form of Crew Dragon, could be brought into service.
The question for engineers and managers is which option would pose less risk to the crew.
The row means that a decision on the method of transport that the Starliner crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni William, will take for their journey back to Earth has been delayed again, probably until next week.
