The media teleconference is scheduled at 1 p.m. EDT and will provide reporters with a status update on the Starliner's readiness to return to Earth, which would occur no earlier than sometime next week.

Scheduled teleconference participants include NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate associate administrators Ken Bowersox and Joel Montalbano.

NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance chief Russ DeLoach, chief astronaut Joe Acaba and Flight Operations Directorate chief flight director Emily Nelson also are scheduled to participate.

Reporters and others can view the teleconference or listen to a live audio presentation on the space agency's website.

U.S. Navy test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams piloted the Starliner on its first crewed mission when it launched on June 5 after several delays due to technical difficulties.

The mission included about a day to travel to the ISS, where the two were to spend eight days testing the spacecraft and its systems before spending another day returning to Earth and landing somewhere in the U.S. desert southwest.

Problems with helium leaks and thrusters have kept the Starliner and its pilots at the ISS much longer than anticipated while NASA and Boeing engineers work to fix the issues, so the two pilots and the Starliner can return to Earth.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket sent the Starliner into space from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The test flight is to determine the Starliner's readiness for use as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program that would partner with U.S. private industry to enable more people to enter low-Earth orbit and support scientific and commercial endeavors in space.

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