Astronauts stuck on ISS to return in February – DW – 08/25/2024

NASA announced this Saturday (08/24/2024) that the two astronauts of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft’s first crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), who were stranded there 80 days after the craft failed, will return in February 2025 on a SpaceX ship.

Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were scheduled to return to Earth in mid-June, about a week after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but fuel failures and small helium leaks on the Starliner prevented its return.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with a crew next February, and Starliner will return uncrewed,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference in Houston, ending weeks of speculation.

Nelson acknowledged “mistakes” and said NASA worked with Boeing — in direct contact with its new CEO Kelly Ortberg — to get “the data we need to make this decision” and understand the “root causes” of Starliner’s problems and the “design improvements” it needs.

Possible return in February 2025.

NASA had previously said it had no return date for the two astronauts and was considering a February 2025 return on a SpaceX Dragon capsule – as part of a mission called Crew-9 – a fact that was finally confirmed after agency leaders met today to review data.

The two astronauts “will return home in the Dragon spacecraft along with two other crew members assigned to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission,” NASA said in a statement, adding that Starliner “will make a safe, controlled, and autonomous return to Earth in early September.”

The SpaceX mission is expected to launch on September 24 from Kennedy Space Center; it was originally planned to accommodate four people, but two will be needed to accommodate the stranded astronauts, who will return to duty in the coming months.

“Spaceflight is risky even when it is safe and routine, and a test flight is not inherently safe and routine, so the decision to leave Butch and Suni on the ISS and return the empty Boeing Starliner is a commitment to safety,” Nelson said.

This was reported through the Boeing crew, who were not present at the press conference.

jc (efe, afp)