In 2019, Starliner failed a check to launch to the ISS with out a crew. During one other try in 2022, it encountered thruster issues.

“We have had mistakes done in the past. We lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward,” Nelson stated. “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine.”

Earlier this month, the households of Butch, 61, and Suni, 58, shared perception into how the astronauts are coping with their prolonged time on the ISS and the uncertainty about their return.

Suni’s husband, Michael Williams, advised The Wall Street Journal that he didn’t assume she was disillusioned to wind up spending extra time on the area station, including, “That’s her happy place.”

Butch’s spouse, Deanna Wilmore, advised Knoxville, Tenn. TV station WVLT that his household did not anticipate him again till “February or March” and stated her husband “just takes it knowing the Lord’s in control and that since the Lord’s in control of it, that he’s content where he is.”

And the astronauts be in contact with their family members and share pictures from their mission as they proceed their scientific experiments and upkeep duties on board the ISS, which can be inhabited by the seven-person U.S. and Russian crew of Expedition 71.

“It is so cool. He gives us a lot of Earth views,” Butch’s daughter Daryn, 19, advised WVLT. “I especially like seeing the sunset.”