NASA has announced that astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth next February aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
The announcement at a press conference today ended months of speculation about the best plan to bring the astronauts home safely after malfunctions with their Boeing Starliner space capsule delayed their departure from the International Space Station in June. Now, NASA has decided that Starliner will return home in September without Wilmore and Williams. Wilmore and Williams will remain with the existing station crew and will return next year on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
“Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to obtain the necessary data to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the meeting. “We want to better understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner can be an important part of our assured access to the ISS for our crew.”
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5 and became the first astronauts to conduct a manned test flight of the Starliner, a capsule developed by Boeing to transport people to and from the ISS.
During the approach to the station, five of the Starliner’s 28 engines failed. The crew was able to restore four of them and dock safely with the station. There they discovered that helium was leaking from the Starliner’s propulsion system in several places.
Boeing and NASA have conducted ground tests using analog equipment to better understand the problem with the engines and the helium leaks. Jim Free, NASA’s deputy director, cited “uncertainty” about the “physics of what’s going on in the engines” as the main reason for delaying Wilmore and Williams’ return flight.
“This was not an easy decision,” added Free. “But it is absolutely the right one.”
Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to stay aboard the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth in the Starliner. But their return was delayed by more than two months as mission planners struggled to determine the cause of the engine problems and assess the risks of using the Starliner to fly home. NASA’s plan calls for them to stay on the ISS for a total of eight months, which is longer than the usual six-month stay but not unprecedented.
Instead of sending a four-person crew to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Dragon as planned in September, two seats on the capsule will be left free for Wilmore and Williams. New Dragon spacesuits for the astronauts and other necessary supplies will be brought to the station in the coming months.
NASA has stressed that Wilmore and Williams are not “stranded” or in any danger. The astronauts have publicly viewed the extended stay as a stroke of luck that will allow them more time in space.
“We’re having a great time here on the ISS,” Williams told reporters in a phone call from the ISS in July. “You know, Butch and I have been up here before and it feels like coming home. It feels good to be floating around. It feels good to be in space and working up here with the International Space Station team.”
