Astronauts Sunita Williams & Wilmore stuck on space station to return with SpaceX crew next year

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will bring two NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule, to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA chief Bill Nelson said on Saturday.

NASA’s announcement that it won’t use a troubled Boeing capsule to return two stranded astronauts to Earth is a yet another setback for the struggling company, although the financial damage is likely to be less than the reputational harm.

Once a symbol of American engineering and technological prowess, Boeing has seen its reputation battered since two 737 Max airliners crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The safety of its products came under renewed scrutiny after a panel blew out of a Max during a flight this January.

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And now NASA has decided that it is safer to keep the astronauts in space until February rather than risk using the Boeing Starliner capsule that delivered them to the international space station. The capsule has been plagued by problems with its propulsion system.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February,” NASA posted on X.

"NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February."@SenBillNelson and agency experts are discussing today's decision on NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test. Watch live with us: https://t.co/M2ODFmLuTj pic.twitter.com/J2qvwOW4mU

— NASA (@NASA) August 24, 2024

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Talking to the media in Houston, Nelson said that he discussed the agency’s decision with Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg.

Boeing is also struggling with quality issues in the production of commercial planes, its most important products. Boeing had hoped its Starliner test mission would redeem the troubled program after years of development problems and over $1.6 billion in budget overruns since 2016.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to ride Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the space station for an eight-day test mission. But Starliner’s propulsion system suffered a series of glitches, triggering months of delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed and it sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.

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

Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew and attempt to return to Earth as it would have with astronauts aboard.

Boeing struggled for years to develop Starliner, a gumdrop-shaped capsule designed to compete with Crew Dragon as a second U.S. option for sending astronaut crews to and from Earth’s orbit.

Starliner failed a 2019 test to launch to the ISS uncrewed, but mostly succeeded in a 2022 do-over attempt where it also encountered thruster problems. Its June mission with its first crew was required before NASA can certify the capsule for routine flights, but now Starliner’s crew certification path has been upended.

Since Starliner docked to the ISS in June, Boeing has scrambled to investigate what caused its thruster mishaps and helium leaks. The company arranged tests and simulations on Earth to gather data that it has used to try and convince NASA officials that Starliner is safe to fly the crew back home.

But results from that testing raised more difficult engineering questions and ultimately failed to quell NASA officials’ concerns about Starliner’s ability to make its crewed return trip - the most daunting and complex part of the test mission.

NASA’s decision, and Starliner’s now-uncertain path to certification, will add to the crises faced by Ortberg, who started this month with the goal to rebuild the planemaker’s reputation after a door panel dramatically blew off a 737 MAX passenger jet in midair in January.

With inputs from agencies.