NASA decided on Saturday that the two astronauts who have been stuck in the International Space Station since June will not return to Earth in Boeing’s new capsule because it is too risky. Instead, they will be brought home in a SpaceX capsule in 2025.
Administrator Bill Nelson and other senior officials met in Houston to determine whether Boeing’s capsule was safe enough to bring the astronauts home.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on June 5 for a week-long test flight aboard Boeing’s Starliner. They soon began experiencing engine failures and helium leaks so severe that NASA parked the capsule at the station while engineers debated what to do next.
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SpaceX will not be able to pick them up until next February. Boeing’s Starliner will return to Earth empty and on autopilot in September.
“A test flight is by its nature neither safe nor routine,” said Bill Nelson, NASA director. “And so the decision … is a commitment to safety.”
“This was not an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” added NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Free.
Boeing said earlier this month that extensive engine tests in space and on the ground had shown that the Starliner was capable of returning astronauts safely.
Boeing did not attend NASA’s press conference on Saturday, but issued a statement: “Boeing remains primarily focused on crew and spacecraft safety. We are executing the mission as defined by NASA and preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
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It was the company’s first astronaut flight and was delayed for years by numerous problems with the space capsule. Two previous test flights of the Starliner had no one on board.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to transport its astronauts to and from the station a decade ago after the space shuttles were retired. SpaceX has been on board since 2020.
Retired Navy captains with many years of space flight experience, Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, expected surprises, although not to this extent, when they took part in the sea trials of a new spacecraft.
The SpaceX capsule currently parked at the space station is reserved for the four residents who have been there since March. They will return in late September, their stay extended by a month by the Starliner dilemma. NASA said it would be too dangerous to squeeze two more into the capsule except in an emergency.
The docked Russian Soyuz capsule is even more cramped, as it can only carry three passengers – two of them Russians who are currently completing their one-year mission.
Wilmore and Williams will have to wait for SpaceX’s next taxi flight, which is scheduled to launch at the end of September with two astronauts instead of the usual four for a six-month stay. NASA has taken two astronauts away to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight at the end of February.
