CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.
The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the flight back.
AP correspondent Julie Walker reports NASA will bring stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX.
After almost three months, the decision finally came down from NASA’s highest ranks on Saturday. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come back in a SpaceX capsule in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot with a touchdown in the New Mexico desert.
As Starliner’s test pilots, the pair should have overseen this critical last leg of the journey.
“A test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The decision “is a result of a commitment to safety.”
Nelson said lessons learned from NASA’s two space shuttle accidents played a role. This time, he noted, open dialogue was encouraged rather than crushed.
“This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” added Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator.
It was a blow to Boeing, adding to the safety concerns plaguing the company on its airplane side. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crew trip to revive the troubled spacecraft program after years of delays and ballooning costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all the recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.
Boeing did not participate in Saturday’s news conference by NASA, but released a statement: “Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft.” The company said it is preparing the spacecraft “for a safe and successful return.”
Rand Corp.’s Jan Osburg, a senior engineer who specializes in aerospace and defense, said NASA made the right choice. “But the U.S. is still left with egg on its face due to the Starliner design issues that should have been caught earlier.”
Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, are both retired Navy captains with previous long-duration spaceflight experience. Before their June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Wilmore and Williams said their families bought into the uncertainty and stress of their professional careers decades ago.
During their
