The two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule in June will return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA said Saturday. Problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system have made it too risky for it to take its first crew home.
The agency’s decision to choose Boeing’s top space rival to return astronauts to space is one of NASA’s most important decisions in years. Boeing had hoped the test mission would revive the Starliner program after development problems and a more than $1.6 billion budget overrun since 2016.
Boeing also is struggling with quality problems in the production of its most important product, commercial aircraft.
Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who are both former military test pilots, became the first crew members aboard Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the International Space Station for an eight-day test mission.
But Starliner’s propulsion system suffered multiple glitches within the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, leading to months of continued delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed and there were multiple leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.
In a rare reshuffle in NASA’s astronaut operations, both astronauts are now expected to return to space in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled to launch next month as part of a regular astronaut rotation mission. Two of Crew Dragon’s four astronaut seats will be kept vacant for Wilmore and Williams.
The Starliner will detach from the ISS without a crew and attempt to return to Earth with the astronauts.
Boeing struggled for years to develop Starliner, a gumdrop-shaped capsule designed to compete with Crew Dragon as the second US option for sending astronauts into Earth orbit.
Starliner failed a test launch to the ISS without a crew in 2019, but was able to make a second attempt in 2022, where it also encountered thruster problems. A June mission with its first crew was needed before NASA could certify the capsule for regular flights, but now Starliner’s crew certification path has been reversed.
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.
NASA’s decision, and the Starliner’s now uncertain path to certification, will add to the woes for Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started this month with the goal of rebuilding the plane maker’s reputation after a door panel on a 737 Max passenger jet suddenly blew off in midair in January.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
