SpaceX will return Boeing’s Starliner astronauts from space next year, NASA says by Reuters

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing’s (NYSE: ) malfunctioning Starliner capsule will have to return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA officials said on Saturday , considering problems. with the Starliner’s propulsion system too risky to carry its first crew home as planned.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to travel on the Starliner on June 5 when they launched to the ISS for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission .

But the Starliner’s propulsion system suffered a series of glitches in the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, keeping the astronauts on the station for 79 days so far while Boeing scrambled to investigate the problems.

NASA officials told reporters during a news conference in Houston that Wilmore and Williams, both former military test pilots, are safe and ready to stay on longer. They will use their extra time to conduct science experiments alongside the station’s seven other astronauts, NASA said.

In a rare reshuffle of NASA astronaut operations, the two astronauts are expected to return in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft due to launch next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission. Two of Crew Dragon’s four astronaut seats will be kept empty for Wilmore and Williams.

The agency’s decision to turn to chief space rival Boeing to return astronauts is one of NASA’s most important in recent years. Boeing had hoped its Starliner test mission would redeem the troubled program after years of development problems and more than $1.6 billion in budget overruns since 2016.

Five of the Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed mid-flight and spewed several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters. It was still able to dock with the station, a football field-sized laboratory that has housed rotating crews of astronauts for more than two decades.

NASA said in a statement that Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew in “early September.” The spacecraft will attempt to return to Earth autonomously, forgoing a primary test goal of having a crew present and in control for the return trip.

“I know this is not the decision we had hoped for, but we are prepared to take the necessary actions to support NASA’s decision,” Boeing’s Starliner chief Mark Nappi told employees in an email.

“The focus remains primarily on ensuring the safety of the crew and the spacecraft,” Nappi said.

Several senior NASA officials and Boeing representatives made the decision during a meeting Saturday morning in Houston.

NASA’s head of space operations, Ken Bowersox, said agency officials voted unanimously for Crew Dragon to bring the astronauts home. Boeing voted for the Starliner, which it said was safe.

Nelson told reporters at a news conference in Houston that he had discussed the agency’s decision with Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, and was confident Boeing would continue its Starliner program. Nelson said he was “100 percent” sure the spacecraft would lead another crew in the future.

“He expressed to me his intention that they would continue to address the issues once the Starliner was safely returned,” Nelson said of Ortberg.

Boeing has struggled for years to develop the Starliner, a bubblegum-shaped capsule designed to compete with Crew Dragon as the US’s second option for sending astronaut crews to and from Earth orbit. The company also faces quality problems in the production of commercial aircraft, its most important products.

The Starliner failed a 2019 test to launch to the ISS without a crew, but mostly succeeded in a 2022 recovery attempt that also encountered problems with the propellant. Its mission in June with its first crew was necessary before NASA could certify the capsule for routine flights, but now the path to certifying the Starliner crew is uncertain.

The long mission cost Boeing $125 million, securities filings show. The company conducted tests and simulations on Earth to gather data that it used to try to convince NASA officials that the Starliner was safe to fly the crew back home.

But the results of those tests raised more difficult engineering questions and ultimately failed to assuage NASA officials’ concerns about the Starliner’s thrusters and its ability to make a crewed round trip, the most daunting and complex part of the test mission.

“There was too much uncertainty in predicting the thrusters,” said NASA’s Commercial Crew Program chief Steve Stich.

The Starliner’s now-uncertain path to receiving a much-sought-after NASA certification will add to the crises facing Ortberg, which began this month to rebuild the planemaker’s reputation after a door panel blew up a 737 MAX passenger plane in the air in January. .