NASA to send Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX Crew Dragon
NASA is keeping its two astronauts who flew in Boeing’s Starliner to the International Space Station safe on board until next year to fly home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
Starliner making its first crewed spaceflight arrived to the ISS on June 6, one day after launching from Cape Canaveral with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board for what was supposed to be about an eight-day stay. Now they won’t get home for at least eight months.
“NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with Crew-9 in February and that Starliner will return uncrewed,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press conference Saturday following an agency-level review of Starliner’s flight safety risk.
Dubbed the Crew Flight Test, Boeing has been trying to get Starliner certified to join SpaceX as one of two commercial providers to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX has been doing the job from the U.S. for more than four years, and now Starliner has an uncertain future.
While trying to dock with ISS, problems with Starliner emerged with it propulsion system, when five of 28 reaction control system thrusters failed on approach. The propulsion module also suffered several helium leaks.