NASA says astronauts stranded in space will return on the SpaceX Crew Dragon

The ordeal began when five of the Starliner’s 28 thrusters of the reaction control system failed while traveling to the ISS in June. The spacecraft’s helium system was also leaking.

Mission controllers have been working to fix problems and test the spacecraft ever since, hoping that they—and not someone else—could bring the astronauts home safely.

NASA leadership held an internal meeting earlier today to consider whether Williams and Wilmore could safely return to Earth on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or whether they should rely on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

NASA’s decision to trust SpaceX to complete the mission could have a significant impact on the future of Boeing’s space program.

During a news conference in July, a NASA official acknowledged that relying on SpaceX to retrieve the astronauts was an option, but declined to elaborate.

NASA confirmed its SpaceX backup plan this month and postponed the company’s next launch to September 24. The delay allows Wilmore and Williams to fly home with the SpaceX crew on its four-person spacecraft in February, about eight months later than their original schedule.

The SpaceX’s plan is not without its flaws.

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in spacesuits compatible with Boeing’s Starliner – not the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Williams and Wilmore will have to travel to Earth without suits on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which doesn’t guarantee them as much protection, according to Fortune.

This is probably the biggest safety decision NASA has had to make in decades. The space shuttle Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts died, has greatly affected the minds of Starliner mission managers, many of whom were involved in that failed flight, Ars Technica reported.

“I’ve been very focused lately on this concept of combating organizational silence. If you look at both, unfortunately, Challenger and Columbia, you can see cases where people had the right data or a valid position to present, but the environment just didn’t allow it,” said Russ DeLoach, chief of the Office of Safety and NASA’s Mission Assurance, in an Aug. 14 Starliner mission briefing.

NASA has poured $4.2 billion into Starliner development. The contract is part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, an effort to give NASA more U.S. options for human spaceflight rather than depending on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Starliner’s initial mission was intended to demonstrate that it could safely transport astronauts to and from the ISS on a regular basis.

Both Boeing and SpaceX spent a decade working with NASA on their Starliner and Crew Dragon vehicles, respectively.

NASA has always insisted that the program was not a competition or a race, but if it had been, SpaceX would have won by a landslide. Not only did the company complete its first crewed test flight four years ago, as CEO Elon Musk pointed out before Williams and Wilmore’s launch, it did it for less, costing NASA only 2.6 billion dollars.

After years of delays, technical problems and rising costs, this crewed flight test was the last hurdle Boeing had to clear in order for NASA to certify the Starliner for human spaceflight.