NASA officials announced Saturday that the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft that carried two astronauts into space in June will return to Earth without them.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stranded in space after engineers discovered helium leaks and problems with the engines shortly after docking with the International Space Station, prompting NASA and Boeing to investigate.
The unmanned return will allow NASA and Boeing to continue collecting test data during the Starliner’s upcoming return flight without putting the crew at greater risk than necessary, NASA officials said.
NASA Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose in the antechamber between the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA)
“The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home unmanned is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters.
“I am grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for their incredible and detailed work.”
The duo originally launched on June 5 from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral in Florida for a test flight mission that was originally scheduled to last a week.
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NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will not return to Earth on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that took them to the International Space Station. (NASA)
They will now return on a SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which is unlikely to launch before September because that mission will need to reduce its crew from four to two to make room for the stranded astronauts, who are expected to return in February 2025.
Since the problems were identified, engineering teams have been reviewing data, conducting flight and ground tests, holding independent reviews with agency propulsion experts and developing various contingency plans for return.
The uncertainty and lack of expert judgment did not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for manned space flights, prompting NASA leadership to transfer the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.
Starliner is scheduled to depart the space station and perform a safe, controlled autonomous reentry and landing in early September. It is designed for autonomous operation and has previously completed two unmanned flights.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024. (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)
