NASA announced Saturday that it had made its decision on how two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station will be returned to Earth: in SpaceX's Dragon capsule instead of in Boeing's Starliner. Referring to past fatal accidents, NASA officials said the astronauts' safety was the main driver of the decision, a brutal blow to Boeing, the Washington Post reports, that will delay the crew's return. The company had insisted it could bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back safely. "I know this is not the decision we hoped for, but we stand ready to carry out the actions necessary to support NASA's decision," a Boeing executive wrote to employees Saturday in an email.
The decision means the Starliner capsule will undock early next month and try to return to Earth, empty, on autopilot. The plan had been for Wilmore and Williams, as Starliner's test pilots, to handle the last leg, culminating in touchdown in the US desert, per the AP. "A test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine," NASA Administration Bill Nelson said Saturday. "And so the decision ... is a commitment to safety." SpaceX will bump two crew members from its Dragon flight to the space station when it launches in late September or so, creating room for Williams and Wilmore to take that return trip in February.
The Boeing capsule has been beset with thruster failures and helium leaks. Now Williams and Wilmore are looking at an eight-month stay at the space station, per the New York Times, and becoming full-fledged crew members. The two were said this week to be holding up well. (More Starliner stories.)
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