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The company had insisted for several months that it was confident in the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in Starliner.
By Kenneth Chang
For weeks, NASA downplayed the standoff via Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft that ferried two astronauts to the International Space Station in June.
But on Wednesday, NASA officials admitted that the disruptions could be more severe than previously thought and that astronauts would likely never get back on the Boeing vehicle.
The company is exploring a backup option that would allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to travel back to Earth aboard a spacecraft built by Boeing competitor SpaceX.
The astronauts’ stay in orbit, which was supposed to last only eight days, could last until next year.
“We can go either way,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Mission Directorate, said at a news conference Wednesday. “And other moderate people might do it one way or another. “
The announcement adds even more headaches and embarrassment to Boeing, an aerospace company that has billions of dollars in aerospace contracts with the federal government and builds advertising planes that fly around the world.
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