Insider Brief
- NASA will return two astronauts to Earth in mid-March after their Starliner spacecraft was deemed unsafe for crewed flight, CBS News reported.
- Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams will instead return aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, along with their two space station crewmates.
- The extended mission, originally planned for about a week, lasted nearly 290 days due to propulsion problems and leaks in the Boeing-built Starliner.
NASA will bring two astronauts back from the International Space Station in mid-March after an extended stay caused by problems with their original spacecraft, according to CBS News. The mission, which was meant to last just over a week, stretched to nearly 290 days due to technical failures with Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
The agency announced that astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, originally sent to test the Starliner, will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon instead. The change was made after months of troubleshooting Starliner’s propulsion problems and leaks, which led NASA to decide it was too risky to fly the spacecraft back with a crew. Instead, Starliner will return to Earth without passengers.
Wilmore and Williams will ride home alongside Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, who have been aboard the space station since last September, CBS News reports. NASA had planned to bring them all back in February but extended the stay again to allow for the launch of their replacements, Crew 10, which is now expected to lift off around March 12.
The decision to keep the astronauts aboard the space station had been in place since September, CBS News reported. Despite this, former President Donald Trump claimed last month that the Biden administration had “abandoned” the astronauts in space, saying he had asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to “go get” them. Musk also criticized Biden in a post on X. However, CBS News reported that the White House had no role in NASA’s decision, and the Crew Dragon set to bring Wilmore and Williams home has been docked at the station for months.
Boeing’s Starliner was developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which aimed to create independent spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the space station. While SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has flown multiple missions since 2020, Starliner’s crewed test flight has been plagued with delays and technical issues.
Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Starliner on June 5 in what was meant to be the spacecraft’s final test before NASA certifies it for regular missions. But after encountering propulsion problems, Starliner was deemed unsafe for their return trip. NASA and Boeing spent months analyzing the issues before deciding the spacecraft should return empty.
Crew 10’s launch will mark the beginning of a weeklong transition period, after which Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams will undock and return to Earth. The mission’s schedule could still shift, depending on factors like weather and the planned Feb. 26 launch of a commercial moon lander from the same launch pad.
NASA has not provided a new timeline for when Starliner might carry astronauts again.
Matt Swayne
With a several-decades long background in journalism and communications, Matt Swayne has worked as a science communicator for an R1 university for more than 12 years, specializing in translating high tech and deep tech for the general audience. He has served as a writer, editor and analyst at The Space Impulse since its inception. In addition to his service as a science communicator, Matt also develops courses to improve the media and communications skills of scientists and has taught courses.
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