Is Boeing Starliner safe to bring the astronauts home? Rumors say that NASA has doubts.

Boeing Starliner launched on June 5, and it's still at the ISS with no return date. NASA was supposed to meet last week to give the capsule the green light to come home, but they delayed that decision into this week. Now there are indications that there may be uncertainty within NASA about the safety of Starliner to return the astronauts, and there's a decent chance Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may come home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Nothing has been decided yet, and it's unclear if these are anything more than just rumors. Here's the complicated story of Starliner's crewed flight test, what has gone wrong, the extensive testing that has been done to get to the heart of the problems (and what Boeing and NASA think might be occurring), as well as what might be happening behind the scenes at NASA. The two articles in question: Ars Technica:arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/yes-nasa-really-coul… CNBC: www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/nasa-may-return-starliner-… 🔭 SUPPORT AD ASTRA Patreon ➔ www.patreon.com/swapnakrishna 💫 FIND ME Ad Astra Newsletter (links + images) ➔ www.adastraspace.com/ Instagram/Threads ➔ instagram.com/skrishna TikTok ➔ www.tiktok.com/@swapna_krishna Twitter ➔ twitter.com/skrishna Mastodon ➔ wandering.shop/@skrishna Bluesky ➔ bsky.app/profile/swapnakrishna.com ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction 02:58 - The helium leak 03:57 - An overview of Starliner's thrusters 05:43 - The thruster failures 06:48 - Extensive ground and ISS testing 08:01 - The thrusters are overheating — but why? 10:16 - The cause of the helium leak 11:07 - What might be going on at NASA 13:11 - NASA paid SpaceX to study a rescue mission 🛰️ SUBSCRIBE For more space and STEM videos, subscribe to Ad Astra: ‪@adastraspace‬