NASA must make a decision on whether to bring back Boeing's Starliner with crew or without within the next week.

• NASA plans to decide soon whether its astronauts will return on Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner or opt for SpaceX as a rescue mission.
• The scheduled launch of the next NASA crew is driving the agency's deadline to decide "roughly by mid-August."
• NASA did not specify if mid-August refers to a specific date, such as Aug. 16, or a broader timeframe.

NASA is set to make a decision within the next week on whether its astronauts will return on the malfunctioning Starliner or opt for a rescue mission with SpaceX.

NASA Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich stated during a press conference that by mid-August, we need to finalize the Starliner return plan.

NASA did not specify if mid-August refers to a specific date, like Aug. 16, or a broader timeframe.

NASA has postponed the launch of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission by a month, to Sept. 24, in order to give itself more time to resolve the issues with the Starliner spacecraft.

Earlier in the conference, NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox stated that he believed we were close to making that call.

NASA has not yet reached a consensus on whether to proceed with its plan to bring back astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board Starliner or opt for an alternative approach using SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

The "Calypso" Starliner capsule has been in space for 64 days, and its mission has been extended indefinitely as Boeing and NASA continue to investigate the root cause of the thruster failures that occurred during docking.

The agency has confirmed that there is a "broad range" of "additional risk" if more thrusters fail unexpectedly during the capsule's return.

As we make our final decision, we'll compare all the risks and weigh them.

During Wednesday's press conference, NASA officials used the word "uncertainty" 18 times, indicating their current feelings.

Three return options

NASA has been readying three potential strategies for bringing back Wilmore and Williams.

Starliner will return the pair and launch Crew-9 with its planned quartet.

NASA has decided to fly Starliner back empty and remove two astronauts from the Crew-9 mission, which was scheduled for a six-month stint at the ISS. The two astronauts to be removed from the mission have not been specified.

The third option would be to return Starliner empty and stick with launching four people on the Crew-9 mission. This would mean Wilmore and Williams would split up for the return, with one coming back with the Crew-8 mission after Crew-9 launches, and the other with Crew-9 when it returns in February. This option would represent the first time SpaceX would fly five passengers on its Dragon spacecraft.

Boeing is making a public appeal to NASA about the safety of Starliner, emphasizing the extensive thruster testing that has been conducted.

NASA is still undecided about the Commercial Crew program due to inconclusive testing results and ongoing debates among agency members. If the program's board cannot reach a consensus, the decision may be escalated to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson for final approval.