Two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in June aboard Boeing’s defective Starliner capsule will have to return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA officials said, saying problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system were too risky to bring the first crew home as planned. Azernews
Reports citing CBC News.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, were the first crew members of the Starliner on June 5 when they launched to the ISS for what is expected to be an eight-day test mission.

But during the first 24 hours of the flight to the ISS, Starliner’s propulsion system experienced a series of malfunctions, forcing the astronauts to spend 79 days on the station while Boeing rushed to investigate the problems.

NASA officials told reporters during a news conference in Houston that Wilmore and Williams are safe and ready to stay longer. They will use their extra time to conduct science experiments alongside the station’s seven other astronauts, NASA said.

In a rare shakeup of NASA’s astronaut operations, the two astronauts are now expected to return in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled to launch next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission. Two of the Crew Dragon’s four astronaut seats will remain open for Wilmore and Williams.

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