NASA announced that astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth in February next year aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
The announcement made at today’s press conference ends months of speculation about the best plan to safely return astronauts to space after a malfunction in Boeing’s Starliner capsule delayed its departure from the International Space Station in June. Now, NASA has decided that Starliner will return in September without Wilmore and Williams, who will remain with the existing space station crew and return on SpaceX’s Crew 9 mission next year.
“Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the data we need to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a briefing. “We want to better understand the root cause and understand design improvements to ensure that the Boeing Starliner remains a critical part of our robust crew access to the ISS.”
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5 to become the first astronauts to perform a crewed test flight of Starliner, a capsule developed by Boeing to carry people to the International Space Station.
During the approach to the station, five of the Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed. The crew repaired four of them and safely docked with the station, where they discovered that the Starliner’s propulsion system was also leaking helium in several places.
Boeing and NASA have been conducting ground tests of analog equipment to better understand the thruster and helium leak issues. NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Freeh cited “uncertainty” about “the physics of what happens in the thruster” as a key reason for delaying the return trip of Wilmore and Williams.
“This wasn’t an easy decision,” Free added. “But it’s absolutely the right decision.”
Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to stay on the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth on the Starliner. However, their return was delayed by more than two months as mission planners struggled to isolate the cause of the propulsion problems and assess the risks of using the Starliner for the return flight. According to NASA’s plans, they will remain on the ISS for a total of eight months, which is longer than the typical six-month stay but not unprecedented.
Instead of sending a four-person crew to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Dragon in September as planned, two seats in the capsule will be reserved for Wilmore and Williams. The new Dragon spacesuits and other necessities for the astronauts will be brought to the space station in the coming months.
NASA stressed that Wilmore and Williams were not “stranded” and were not in danger. Likewise, the astronauts openly approached the extended stay as a lucky break to spend more time in space.
“We’re having a great time on the ISS,” Williams told reporters. In the July call On the ISS. “You know, Butch and I have been here before, and it feels like coming home. It feels good to be floating. It feels good to be in space and working with the International Space Station team.”
