NASA announced that astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth in February next year aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
The announcement at today’s press conference ends months of speculation about the best plan to bring the astronauts home safely after failures with their Boeing Starliner capsule postponed their departure from the International Space Station in June. Now, NASA has decided that Starliner will return home in September without Wilmore and Williams, who will remain with the current station crew and return next year on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
“Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the data we need to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a briefing. “We want to better understand the root causes and understand the design improvements to make the Boeing Starliner an important part of our assured crew access to the ISS.”
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, becoming the first astronauts to make a crewed test flight of Starliner, a capsule developed by Boeing to carry humans to and from the ISS.
During approach to the station, five of Starliner’s 28 engines failed to function. The crew was able to restore four of them and dock safely with the station, where they discovered that Starliner’s propulsion system was also leaking helium from multiple locations.
Boeing and NASA are conducting ground tests of analog equipment to better understand the engine and helium leak issues. NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Free cited “uncertainties” related to the “physics that go on in the engines” as the primary reason for postponing Wilmore and Williams’ return trip.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Free added. “But it’s absolutely the right one.”
Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to stay aboard the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth in Starliner. However, their return was delayed by more than two months as mission planners struggled to isolate the cause of the engine problems and assess the risks of using Starliner on the return flight. NASA’s plan is for them to remain on the ISS for a total of eight months, longer than the typical six-month stay, but it’s not unprecedented.
Instead of sending a four-person crew to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Dragon in September as planned, two seats in the capsule will be left for Wilmore and Williams. Novel Dragon spacesuits for the astronauts, along with other necessary supplies, will be delivered to the station in the coming months.
NASA has stressed that Wilmore and Williams are not “trapped” or in any danger. Similarly, the astronauts have publicly viewed their extended stays as a stroke of luck that allows them to accumulate more time in space.
“We’re having a great time here on the ISS,” Williams told reporters. in a telephone conversation in July from the ISS. “You know, Butch and I have been here before, and it feels like I’m coming home. It’s good to be floating in the air. It’s good to be in space and working here with the team at the International Space Station.”