Boeing Starliner astronauts will return home on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule next year
NASA has announced that astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth next February aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
Announcement at today’s press conference ends month belong to speculation about the best plan to bring astronauts home safely after their trip went wrong, Boeing aircraft‘s Starliner spacecraft has postponed its departure from International Space Station in June. Now, NASA has decided that Starliner will return home in September without Wilmore and Williams, who will stay with the station’s current crew and return on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission next year.
“Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the data we need to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference. “We want to better understand the root cause and understand the design improvements that will make the Boeing Starliner a critical part of ensuring our crews can access the ISS.”
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, became the first astronaut to conduct a manned test flight of the Starliner, a spacecraft developed by Boeing to carry people to and from the ISS.
During the approach to the station, five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed. The crew was able to recover four of them and safely docked with the station, where they discovered that Starliner’s thruster system was also leaking helium from multiple locations.
Boeing and NASA conducted ground tests of the same device to better understand the helium leak and thruster issues. NASA associate administrator Jim Free cited “uncertainties” with “physical phenomena occurring in the thruster” as the core reason for the postponement of Wilmore and Williams’ return.
“This was not an easy decision,” Free added. “But it was absolutely the right decision.”
Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to stay on the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth on the Starliner. But their return was postponed. delayed for more than two months as mission planners struggle to determine the cause of the thruster failure and assess the risks of using Starliner for the flight home. NASA’s plan would see them stay on the ISS for a total of eight months, longer than the usual six-month stay but not unprecedented.
Instead of sending a four-person crew to the ISS on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule in September as planned, two seats on board will be left empty for Wilmore and Williams. New Dragon spacesuits for the astronauts, along with other necessary supplies, will be delivered to the station in the coming months.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have stressed that Wilmore and Williams were not “trapped” nor in any danger. Likewise, the astronauts have publicly viewed the extended stay as a blessing that allowed them to accumulate more time in space.
“We’re having a great time here on the ISS,” Williams told reporters. in a call in July from the ISS. “You know, Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like coming home. It feels great to be floating around. It feels great to be in space and working here with the International Space Station team.”
