NASA today selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX to fly Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore back to space next year. Eighty days ago, the two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner for an 8-day mission. They were forced to extend their stay due to major technical problems in the Boeing capsule.
The astronauts are expected to return in February next year, after spending a total of eight months in orbit, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled to be launched next month as part of a regular astronaut rotation mission.
NASA chief Bill Nelson said Starliner’s propulsion system is too risky to take its first crew home. Starliner will separate from the ISS without a crew and attempt to return to Earth with astronauts.
The space agency’s decision to choose Boeing’s top space rival dealt a fresh blow to the Starliner test mission, which Boeing hoped would salvage the troubled program after years of development problems and a budget overrun of more than $1.6 billion since 2016.
Nelson said he discussed the agency’s decision with Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission will fly in late September, but will carry only two passengers instead of the originally planned four.
It will remain docked at the ISS until its scheduled return in February, and will bring back its crew members as well as two stranded colleagues.
The veteran NASA astronauts, both former military test pilots, became the first crew members to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Starliner on June 5.
Starliner’s propulsion system suffered multiple glitches within the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, causing months of continuous delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed and there were multiple leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.
Since Starliner was attached to the ISS in June, Boeing has scrambled to investigate the cause of its thruster mishaps and helium leaks. The company has arranged tests and simulations on Earth to gather data it has used to convince NASA officials that Starliner is safe to carry crew back home.
But the results of that test raised more difficult engineering questions and ultimately failed to assuage NASA officials’ concerns about Starliner’s ability to make the return trip with a crew — the most difficult and complex part of the test mission.
