• After more than a month stuck at the International Space Station, Boeing still has no idea when Starliner will return.
• While testing continues, only four of the five thrusters that failed are operational.
• This situation isn’t likely to win NASA’s favour.

The future of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft has a massive question mark next to it after more than a month of being stuck at the International Space Station (ISS).

Pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were meant to spend a week aboard the floating laboratory before heading back to solid ground. However, a thruster failure and helium leak have left the pair without a working ride and they have now been aboard the ISS for over 50 days.

The pair will have to spend more time aboard the ISS according to NASA commercial crew programme manager Steve Stich.

“We’ll come home when we’re ready,” Stich said in a briefing on Thursday.

This comes after tests were conducted in New Mexico last week. Engineers tested a thruster similar to that aboard Starliner to try to uncover why the spacecraft experienced a failure. While four of five thrusters that failed are once again operational, ground teams need to make sure that the craft is operational so as to safely return the astronauts.

The astronauts could use SpaceX’s vessel to return to Earth but for now, there is still hope that Boeing can resolve the situation and bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth safely.

Boeing along with SpaceXare tasked with ferrying NASA astronauts – and equipment – to and from the International Space Station. Unfortunately, it appears as if Boeing’s woeful engineering has hit the firm’s spacecraft as well as its aircraft.

With neither firm offering any sort of timeline as to when the various tests and fixes will be complete, the two astronauts are going to have to stay above us for the foreseeable future.

As for Boeing’s future working with NASA, we suspect the space agency is less than pleased at how the firm’s first crewed mission has played out.