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Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR

NASA will bring stranded astronauts back on SpaceX — not Boeing's Starliner

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In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13.
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13.
NASA/via AP

Boeing’s Starliner will come back to Earth empty, and the two astronauts who took it up into orbit on a test flight will return in a capsule built by a competing company, SpaceX.

The long-awaited decision by NASA means the astronauts will have to cool their heels on the International Space Station until February.

And it’s a stunning blow to Boeing's beleaguered Starliner program, which has been beset by delays and technical troubles.

“Space is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press briefing on Saturday, who cited the loss of two space shuttles and their crews in the past. “Our core value is safety and it is our north star.”

This long-duration photo shows Boeing’s Starliner docked to the International Space Station at night, with the Earth whizzing by below.
This long-duration photo shows Boeing’s Starliner docked to the International Space Station at night, with the Earth whizzing by below.
NASA

In early June, astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams blasted off in Starliner on a trip to the station that was supposed to last about eight days--but now it will be eight months.

That’s because glitches cropped up during the test flight. NASA and Boeing spent weeks trying to understand the cause of helium leaks and flakey behavior by thrusters that inexplicably conked out as Starliner approached the station.

Now NASA officials say they’re just not comfortable trying to bring Wilmore and Williams home in Starliner.

The agency will instead turn to their reliable partner SpaceX, which has successfully been providing taxi services to and from the station for several years.

A SpaceX capsule was already scheduled to go to the station next month, with its return trip planned to occur in February. NASA has decided to reconfigure things so that this capsule has two seats free and available for Williams and Whitmore to catch a ride home.

Having a rival firm step in to complete a high-profile, milestone mission is an embarrassing development for aerospace giant Boeing, which has long had difficulties with Starliner.

In 2019, Starliner's first uncrewed test flight didn't even make it to the station. The second test flight, in 2022, was deemed a success, but engineers later found worrying problems such as the use of adhesive tape that was flammable. Fixing these issues delayed its first flight with astronauts.

For a decade, Boeing and SpaceX both have had contracts with NASA as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which was established to have industry provide regular flights to the nearby space station so that NASA would be freed up to focus on going to the moon and beyond.

Boeing received significantly more money than SpaceX to develop a space taxi. But while Starliner has yet to complete a crewed round-trip flight to the ISS, SpaceX has done a number of crewed missions for NASA.

Copyright 2024, NPR