Two astronauts stuck until February

NASA said Saturday that the two astronauts on Boeing’s first crewed Starliner mission to the International Space Station (ISS), who were stranded there for 80 days after the device 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, a week after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but engine failures and small helium leaks in the Starliner prevented their 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.

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 on the Dragon vehicle along with two other crew members assigned to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission,” NASA said in a statement, adding that Starliner “will deploy and land safely, controlled and autonomously in early September.”

The SpaceX mission is expected to launch from Kennedy Space Center on September 24.