NASA: Astronauts waiting to come home might hitch ride with SpaceX crew
Boeing Starliner astronauts may be stranded until 2025
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore launched from Florida on June 5 on a trip that was supposed to last just eight days. Once in space, the crew found a series of concerning helium leaks and thruster failures that have left NASA and Boeing scrambling to find a solution.
HOUSTON - NASA officials said on Wednesday that they may attempt to bring back astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in February 2025 if issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft cannot be resolved.
SpaceX might be an option
FILE - The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5, 2024. (Credit: MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Ge
Wilmore and Williams were meant to visit the International Space Station for a little over a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures aboard the Starliner spacecraft have kept them in space for two months now.
In order to buy some more time for engineers, NASA has approved moving a separate SpaceX Crew-9 mission which was supposed to launch this month to Sept. 24, according to Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
While it’s still preferred to bring Wilmore and Williams back aboard the Starliner, if problems persist, Wilmore and Williams may hitch a ride with SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission aboard their Dragon capsule.
If this is the path that’s chosen to bring back Wilmore and Williams, they won’t return until February 2025, extending their stay to eight months.
"Now we haven’t approved this plan, in other words, we’ve done all the work to make sure this plan is there. We have the suits identified to fly up on Crew-9, we have the seats set up so that we can fly a multiple complement of people, but we have not turned that on, formally, as that’s the path that we’re going to go down," Stitch said during a conference call with media.
NASA management expects to see SpaceX's full plan next week. Stich said the decision on how the astronauts return to Earth is expected by mid-August.
Even with the current issues, Sitch said he sees a "bright future for Starliner."
Boeing Starliner crew
FILE - NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (R) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center for Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to boa
Veteran NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago.
They joined Boeing Starliner’s test flight after the original crew bowed out as the delays piled up.
Wilmore, 61, is a former combat pilot from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Massachusetts.