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Boeing ’s Starliner mission is coming back to Earth — empty .
After months of data analysis and internal deliberation , NASA leadership announced today that Starliner will be coming back to Earth in September , without a crew . Meanwhile , astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain on table the International Space Station until February 2025 , when they will return on SpaceX ’s Dragon spacecraft as part of the Crew-9 mission .
NASA noted that while the astronauts ’ eight - calendar month stoppage on the ISS will be longer than anticipate , others have remained on the ISS for as long as 12 months . While there , Wilmore and Williams will be involved in research , station criminal maintenance , and potentially a few spacewalks .
Boeing launched the first crew Starliner mission — a tryout military mission — on June 5,with topic originate around 24 hours afterward . In the final phase of approach to the ISS , five of the 28 thrusters on Starliner hold out offline , and several helium leaks sprung up in the space vehicle ’s actuation system of rules . Since then , NASA and Boeing engineer have been engaged in a ancestor cause analysis , conducting tests of the pusher on board the space vehicle and test a replication engine here on Earth .
NASA was betting a caboodle on Starliner — about $ 4.2 billion , per a contract that was awarded to Boeing for Starliner ’s exploitation back in 2014 . Boeing has also put a lot on the blood line , with cost overruns on the space capsule amounting to over $ 1.5 billion .
NASA ’s objective was to have two commercial crew transportation supplier , which is why it awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX. But while SpaceX complete its documentation mission in 2020 and has conducted eight NASA charge since that point , Boeing ’s Starliner front numerous delays .
Although the incident might seem like the nail in Starliner ’s coffin , at today ’s closet conference , NASA leaders said they ’ve been working closely with Boeing , and they promote back against a question incriminate that there ’d been any release of trust in the society or Starliner — instead , they suggested there was merely a “ variance ” over the level of risk of exposure .
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“ Spaceflight is high-risk , even at its safest and most workaday , ” said NASA executive Bill Nelson . “ A test flight , by nature , is neither safe , nor unremarkable . The conclusion to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing ’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our allegiance to safety : our core value and our North Star . ”
Nelson later pronounce he is “ 100 per centum ” certain that Starliner will be able to launch a crewed mission to the ISS in the futurity .
