NASA announced over the weekend that two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in June aboard Boeing Co (NYSE:BA, ETR:BCO)'s faulty Starliner spacecraft will remain in space until February when they can instead return on a SpaceX vehicle.
Issues with Starliner’s propulsion system have been found too risky to bring the crew home and the craft will instead return to earth unmanned in early September.
The astronouts will instead return on a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 24.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew Starliner to the ISS on June 5 for what was intended to be an eight-day test mission. However, five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed during the flight and there were several helium leaks.
Engineers have carried out extensive testing but “the uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission,” the space agency said.
“The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
The decision to partner with SpaceX to bring the stranded astronauts home is a major setback for Boeing’s space program as it struggles to keep pace with its rivals.