SpaceX ’s Crew Dragon capsule will bring Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back home from the International Space Station in February 2025 , NASA said on Saturday .
The agency ’s decision marks the former setback for Boeing ’s costly and chronically retard Starliner program , and it means unfold the astronauts ’ designate eight - 24-hour interval journey to a sum of eight month at theInternational Space Station .
Since Boeing first bring its $ 4.3 billion contract with NASA in 2014 , the Starliner exploit has gone more than$1.5 billionover budget , starting with abotched first test flight and continuing with a slew of subsequent takings , including incorrect parachutes , flammable protective tape , rust accumulation , an event involving an oxygen tank’spressure regulation valve , and most recently , helium leakage that could compromise the vehicle ’s thrusters en route to Earth .
“NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, wave as they prepare to depart.” © Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images
Starliner ’s first crew trial - flightlaunched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5 . Starliner team spot one helium leak pre - launch , two other news leak during launching , andtwo more after the craft docked at ISS . Since then , NASA and Boeing have been evaluating whether the craft is safe enough to bring its rider — Williams and Wilmore — back to Earth . At the time , there was talk that the astronautsmight be flummox up there for as farsighted as six months .
Still presently docked at ISS , NASA says the Boeing Starliner will ultimately render to Earth uncrewed , in spite of Boeing ’s stance that the Starliner is capable of carry Williams and Wilmore home safely .
NASA administrator Bill Nelson told closet on Saturday , “ Spaceflight is high-risk , even at its safest and most routine . A psychometric test flight of stairs , by nature , is neither safe , nor routine . ” harmonise to Nelson , NASA ’s call to keep the astronauts aboard ISS for several extra month , and deliver the Starliner uncrewedin September , “ is a result of a commitment to safety . ”
Williams and Wilmore will instead regress via SpaceX ’s several months - retentive Crew-9 mission , which was originally slated to launch with four astronauts aboard in August , but will now take off with just two crew members as presently as September 24 . The staffing change - up will leave two seat open for the ground spaceman when the Crew Dragon capsule returns to Earth in February .
Upon their rejoinder , the Starliner astronautsmay have no option but to step foot on Earth wearing SpaceX suits . “ From a wooing standpoint , they ’re really not exchangeable , ” NASA lieutenant associate decision maker Joel Montalbano sound out in the beginning this calendar month . “ You ca n’t have a Boeing suit in a SpaceX [ craft ] , or a SpaceX suit in a Boeing vehicle . So that would not be the plan , ” he added .
BoeingBoeing StarlinerNASASPACEX
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