NASA reveals 'preparation' for next Starliner launch leaving critics concerned more astronauts could end up stranded

NASA has spoken out about its next plans for its Starliner spacecraft despite its malfunction leaving two astronauts stranded in space for over nine months.

NASA astronauts Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore recently made it back down to Earth after taking off last June for what was meant to be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

While Williams has said she will likely never return to space again, it seems NASA has other plans for its Starliner astronaut capsule.

Williams and Wilmore were stuck in space for over nine months as a result of technical issues with their returning spacecraft - the Starliner.

During its flight to the ISS last year, five of Starliner's thrusters failed and there were also leaks of helium - the helium used to pressurize the thrusters.

NASA stated on its website at the time: "NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station.

"Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a collection of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans.

"The uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission."

Starliner returned to Earth uncrewed (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)

NASA has since revealed 'preparation' for the Starliner spacecraft to go again on another mission, with manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program Steve Stich saying in a press conference held on Tuesday (March 18) they're 'in the process of looking at that vehicle'.

He said, as quoted by Space.com: "We're certainly looking at Starliner very carefully. We're in the process of looking at that vehicle, looking at the helium system. We've got some candidate seals that we're going to replace. We'll get into some testing here over the summer timeframe with what we call an 'integrated doghouse' at White Sands [a NASA test facility in New Mexico]."

He explained there are 'some changes' the team 'need to make' to 'the way' the thrusters are heated and fired and they're planning on 'test[ing]' those changes on the Starliner's 'next flight.

Stich added: "We need to make sure we can eliminate the helium leaks; eliminate the service module thruster issues that we had on docking."

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams only just safely returned (MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)

ABC News reports Stich saying the plan would be to do one uncrewed test flight and 'then get into a crewed rotation flight' - so the team will make sure there are 'all the systems in place that [it] could fly a crew with'.

Stich reflected: "We really need to get Boeing into a crewed rotation. Butch and Suni's return on Dragon, to me, shows how important it is to have two different crew transportation systems, the importance of Starliner and the redundancy that we're building into human spaceflight for our low Earth orbit economy."

He resolved: "As I think about it, it might be there for a contingency situation, as we prepare for whatever events could happen. One of the things that I've learned in my time at NASA is, always be prepared for the unexpected."

However, the 'preparation' has been met with concern from some. US Air Force veteran and former Space System Commander Rudy Ridolfi told DailyMail.com: "NASA does not want to be in a position where they have to make a decision to not return a crew with the Boeing Starliner again."

UNILAD has contacted NASA for comment.