NASA says Boeing’s Starliner astronauts will return to Earth on different spacecraft in February

(NEW YORK) — The two astronauts who went up to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s Starliner will have to come home on a different spacecraft, NASA officials announced Saturday.

Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who performed the first crewed test flight of Starliner, will return in February 2025 on the Space-X crew 9, according to NASA.

The Boeing Starliner will return in a separate flight uncrewed, NASA said.

“The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at a news conference.

When Wilmore and Williams launched on June 5, they were originally scheduled to only be on the ISS for a week and return on June 14, but have since had their return delayed multiple times.

While the pair integrated with the “Expedition 71” crew aboard the ISS, assisting them with research and other responsibilities, NASA officials have said Wilmore and Williams are using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regards to the vehicle’s thrusters.

“There was too much risk for the crew,” he said.

A Boeing spokesperson said in a statement that the company “Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft.”

“We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return,” Boeing said.

NASA officials said Wilmore and Williams will assist with science experiments, maintenance and maybe some spacewalks during their extended stay on the ISS.

Stich said during a news conference earlier this month that NASA was considering sending SpaceX’s Dragon Crew-9, set to launch to the ISS in September, with only two of the four astronauts assigned to it.

The spacecraft would carry extra spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams. However, the two would remain on the ISS until February 2025, when Crew-9 is set to return to Earth. Stich said at the time that the proposed plan had not formally been approved yet.

Stich added that Starliner does not currently have the ability to autonomously undock from the ISS. To do that, the Starliner software would need to be updated and the Boeing flight control team would need to undergo additional training.

Starliner is part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts could be certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.

Starliner has been plagued by issues even before launch. The flight test was originally tentatively scheduled for May 6, but was scrubbed after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), which manufactures and operates the rockets that launch spacecraft into orbit.

A new launch date had been set for May 25, but a small helium leak was discovered in the service module, which contains support systems and instruments for operating a spacecraft.

Helium leaks and a thruster issue then threatened to delay Starliner’s docking. Five days after docking at the ISS, NASA and Boeing said the spacecraft was experiencing five “small” helium leaks and, at the time, said enough helium was available for the return mission.

Last month, teams at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico performed ground tests of Starliner’s thruster, putting it through similar conditions the spacecraft experienced on its way to the ISS, to see how it would react upon undocking.

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