NASA will return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, the agency announced on August 25, 2024 (AEST). The unmanned return will allow NASA and Boeing to continue collecting test data on the Starliner during the upcoming flight without taking more risks than necessary for the crew.
Wilmore and Williams, who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, were involved in supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other tasks.
“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight is inherently neither safe nor routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said over the weekend. “The decision to keep Butch and Suni on board the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home unmanned is the result of our commitment to safety – our core value and our guiding light. I am grateful to the teams at NASA and Boeing for all their incredible and detailed work.”
Wilmore and Williams will officially continue their work as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew until February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to lift off from the space station and perform a safe, controlled, autonomous reentry and landing in early September.
NASA and Boeing discovered helium leaks and problems with the spacecraft’s reaction control engines on June 6 during Starliner’s approach to the space station. Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a data collection, conducting flight and ground tests, conducting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans. The uncertainty and lack of expert judgment do not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.
“Decisions like this are never easy, but I want to commend our NASA and Boeing teams for their thorough analysis, transparent discussions and focus on safety during the Crew Flight Test,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We learned a lot about the spacecraft during the trip to the station and during docked operations. We will continue to collect more data on Starliner during the uncrewed return and improve the system for future flights to the space station.”
Starliner is designed for autonomous operation and has already completed two unmanned flights. NASA and Boeing will work together in the coming weeks to adjust Starliner’s end-of-mission planning and systems and prepare for its unmanned return. Starliner must return to Earth before the Crew-9 mission launches to ensure a docking slot is available on the station.
“Starliner is a very capable spacecraft, and ultimately a higher level of safety is required for a crewed return,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “The NASA and Boeing teams have conducted a tremendous amount of testing and analysis, and this flight test provides important information on Starliner’s performance in space. Our efforts will help prepare for the uncrewed return and will greatly benefit future corrective actions for the spacecraft.”
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program requires spacecraft to complete a crewed test flight to prove the system is ready for regular flights to and from the space station. After the Starliner returns, the agency will review all mission-related data to determine what additional actions are needed to meet NASA’s certification requirements.
The agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, originally planned with four crew members, will launch no earlier than September 24. The agency will announce more information on the Crew-9 lineup once details are finalized.
NASA and SpaceX are currently working on several things before launch, including reconfiguring the seats on the Crew-9 Dragon and adjusting the cargo manifest to carry additional cargo, personal items and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams. In addition, NASA and SpaceX will now use new facilities at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral to launch Crew-9, providing greater operational flexibility around the planned launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper.
The Crew-9 mission will be the ninth rotational mission to the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
