Eighty days since they took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida onboard Boeing’s Starliner mission, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will have to remain on the International Space Station (ISS) till February 2025. Their return journey to Earth ran into trouble because of issues plaguing the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
With the Starliner suffering setbacks with helium leaks and thrusters, NASA on Saturday deemed it was too risky to bring the two astronauts back in the capsule. Instead, the space agency decided to turn to Elon Musk's SpaceX’s workhorse Crew Dragon spacecraft.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said NASA considered its extensive experience with spaceflight — both successful and unsuccessful — when they decided to opt for SpaceX. The agency also held a poll of its representatives from across its departments and oversight and development centres. He added that NASA lost two space shuttles "as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward."
"Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine," he said.
The starliner will fly home empty in early September.
SpaceX, which has been conducting astronauts to the ISS since 2020, has a routine mission scheduled in September, called Crew-9. This will now have to be reconfigured to carry Williams and Wilmore. It will have to scrap the initial plan to send a four-person crew and leave two seats for the duo. New Dragon spacesuits for the astronauts, along with other necessary supplies, will be brought to the station in the coming months. SpaceX will work with NASA to decide which astronauts will not fly to the ISS on Crew-9.
It was during 2020 that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon completed its first crewed test flight, thereby earning certification from NASA. The successful flights of SpaceX's workhorse.
Over the last four years, it has carried a dozen crews to and from the ISS.
SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has shared that her company is ready to work with NASA to bring back astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.