It’s official. The two astronauts of NASA’s Starliner mission will not return to Earth on the Starliner. Instead, the two, both retired Navy captains, will remain on the International Space Station until 2025.
NASA had been deliberating for weeks about whether or not to return Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to Earth in the Boeing Starliner capsule they launched in. On Saturday, August 24, NASA confirmed that the two astronauts will remain on the ISS until February 2025, when they will leave orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket, along with two other astronauts who will join them on the station next month.
They will now spend more than half a year in space. Their mission was originally supposed to last only eight days.
“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight is inherently neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our guiding light,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday. “I am grateful to the teams at NASA and Boeing for their incredible and detailed work.”
The two astronauts are both experienced naval aviators who served as test pilots before leaving the Navy to join NASA. They were selected as the first two astronauts to fly a manned Starliner mission. Each of them has previous experience in space, but the problems with the Starliner will keep them in space longer than any of them have before.
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Boeing’s Starliner has been tested as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Both Boeing and SpaceX have contracts with NASA for capsules designed to carry crews into space and back. The two companies also regularly work with the United States Space Force for orbital missions.
The Starliner launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in June, but in space, NASA and Boeing discovered a helium leak and several engines failed during docking with the ISS. After several tests and evaluations, NASA determined that the Starliner capsule “does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight.” However, it is safe for an autonomous return to Earth, which NASA says is planned for September.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission will be adjusted due to NASA’s decision. Previously, the plan was to send a crew of four to the ISS, but now it will be just two, leaving two spots free for Williams and Wilmore. In addition, additional supplies and SpaceX Dragon-specific spacesuits will be prepared for the two Starliner astronauts to use for the return trip to Earth.
