‘Spaceflight is risky:’ NASA decides Starliner astronauts will stay at space station until 2025

HOUSTON – NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced during a news conference Saturday that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain at the International Space Station until February 2025.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February and that Starliner will return uncrewed, and the specifics in the schedule will be discussed momentarily. I want you to know that Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the necessary data to make this decision. We want to further understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our assured crew access to the ISS,” Nelson said.

Wilmore and Williams launched from Florida to the International Space Station on June 5 for what was to be a week-long stay. Multiple landing dates have since been called off as NASA and Boeing evaluate the capsule’s propulsion system; at least five instances of leaking helium have been noted, which is used to pressurize the propulsion system’s fuel lines.

The space agency sought to conduct a Program Control Board review and an Agency Flight Readiness Review before determining how Wilmore and Williams would return to Earth, either on the Boeing-built Starliner spacecraft that they rode up with or in two empty seats on the SpaceX Dragon capsule to be used in the upcoming Crew-9 mission, the latter set to launch in September and return as late as February 2025.

Nelson said he had spoken with Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, whom he says expressed an intention to continue to work out Starliner’s issues once the capsule is safely back home.

“This whole discussion, remember, is put in the context of, we have had mistakes done in the past. We lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward; we have been very solicitous of all of our employees, that if you have some objection, you come forward. Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine, and a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine, and so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety,” Nelson said.

Boeing issued the following statement on social media:

Read further from Associated Press journalist Marcia Dunn.

Watch Saturday’s news conference in the video player below or by clicking here.

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