CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Despite brushing off the notion previously, NASA officials say they are now evaluating all options for bringing home the crew of the problem-plagued Boeing Starliner from the International Space Station — including the possibility of bringing the two astronauts home on business competitor SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

During the NASA teleconference on Wednesday afternoon, officials stressed that they have a contingency plan for the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission, which saw the company’s Starliner spacecraft take NASA astronauts Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station, thanks to United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.

The maiden crewed flight of the Starliner has suffered from five small helium leaks and five aft reaction control system thrusters on the service module failed as the spacecraft approached the space station on Thursday, June 6. One of the thrusters was turned off because it was not functioning correctly.

(Scroll down to view an interactive timeline of events)

As of Wednesday, the crew's approximately 10-day mission has stretched to 63 days, and there is currently a set return time frame for the two.

The U.S. space agency stated that teams were analyzing the results of a recent space station-docked hot-fire testing of the thrusters and propulsion system of the Starliner spacecraft. The results have not been released, but officials say those results will help determine if the spacecraft is safe to return its crew back to Earth.

But NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said the issues with Starliner have caused team leaders to come up with a contingency plan to send two crew members on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission and have Wilmore and Williams joining them for the return of Crew-9 in February 2025.

Originally, the NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission was set to launch on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. But as of Tuesday, the new launch date is no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 24.

And it was going to include NASA’s Zena Cardman, Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov as crew members. NASA has not said which two would be cut from the mission if the contingency plan goes forward.

International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel said the Dragon spacecraft would have to be reconfigured to accommodate the unusual return mission, such as the seating. SpaceX officials said the spacecraft's center of gravity would need to be adjusted.

NASA reached out to SpaceX officials sometime in July to see what the options would look like to use a Dragon to return the Starliner crew, as concerns started to rise following a review of data about the spacecraft's thrusters, Stitch said.

He said that if Williams and Wilmore return with Crew-9, the Starliner spacecraft will return on its own without a human crew. That would require Starliner to be programmed with a new flight path, and flight controllers would need time to become familiar with the new plan, he said.

Ken Bowersox, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate associate administrator, said the odds of an uncrewed Starliner returning have increased.

Stitch told Spectrum News that the problems Starliner is experiencing can be fixed.

“I think the path forward for Starliner is to complete the rest of the test flight, to undock. I would like it to undock with a crew but if we don't end up getting there with the entire community, undock, execute the deorbit burn, return home and then make the corrections to the problems that we've found. These problems can be fixed,” he said.

Spectrum News asked about what NASA thought about the future of Starliner, with Stich saying, "So, I see a bright future for Starliner. Either way, we really need two crew transportation systems. There could be a day in the future where we're calling upon Starliner to do something for us like this and it's a great vehicle it's got great capability. And, you know, Boeing has done a tremendous job working on it in concert with commercial crew and so I really see that there's a viable path for Starliner either way that we go."

He also said that NASA does not need to change the testing requirements of spacecraft to make sure they are flight ready, saying there is no need for it.

During a July teleconference, Spectrum News asked NASA officials about the possibility of using a different spacecraft to return the pair of astronauts, only to be told that Starliner would be the only craft used. But in a later July teleconference, officials admitted they were keeping their options on.

Missing from Wednesday’s teleconference was Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and program manager at the company’s Commercial Crew Program. He has been a familiar face in many press conferences since the launch attempts of Starliner and afterward.

In a statement to Spectrum News, Boeing stated, "CFT is currently a crewed mission, and we still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale.  If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return."

SpaceX has not yet gotten back to Spectrum News with a comment about the announcement.

Starliner mission timeline