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Just a few days ago, on Tuesday, officials from NASA and Boeing set a return date to Earth for June 26. But that was before a series of meetings on Thursday and Friday during which mission managers were to review findings about two significant issues with the Starliner spacecraft: five separate leaks in the helium system that pressurizes Starliner's propulsion system and the failure of five of the vehicle's 28 reaction-control system thrusters as Starliner approached the station.

The NASA update did not provide any information about deliberations during these meetings, but it is clear that the agency's leaders were not able to get comfortable with all contingencies that Wilmore and Williams might encounter during a return flight to Earth, including safely undocking from the space station, maneuvering away, performing a de-orbit burn, separating the crew capsule from the service module, and then flying through the planet's atmosphere before landing under parachutes in a New Mexico desert.

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NASA is understating everything because this flight should never have been greenlit in the first place. It's Challenger all over again. Nobody has died and for that we should be thankful, but NASA is behaving in a way that will result in deaths if they don't fix whatever is going on over there. It's like the most safety conscious culture from the outside, and then they just greenlight flights that are leaking like a sieve in every test, failing to properly deploy parachutes, and more. But Boeing always gets the 'special' treatment from the government.