NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams posed in Boeing’s Starliner with the International Space Station. NASA announced that Boeing will bring back the Starliner capsule without the astronauts it took to space in early June. Instead, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in September.
Wilmore and Williams will stay at the ISS for about six more months before returning in February on SpaceX’s Crew-9 vehicle. The decision to bring back the Starliner empty is a change from NASA and Boeing’s previous plan to use the capsule to return the crew.
The Starliner faced problems with its propulsion system during the crew flight test. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the decision to return the Starliner empty for safety reasons. NASA will conduct another Flight Readiness Review to determine when to bring the empty Starliner home.
Boeing and NASA disagreed on the safety of using Starliner to return the crew in case of an emergency. Despite the delays and technical disagreements, Boeing is preparing for a safe uncrewed return. NASA officials chose SpaceX to bring the crew home and decremented the number of astronauts onboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 vehicle to accommodate Wilmore and Williams.
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