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NASA ’s two strand astronauts will be get home from theInternational Space Station(ISS ) on aSpaceXvehicle in February 2025 , leaving the defective Starliner space vehicle that direct them there to reelect without a work party , the agency has tell .
The promulgation , made ata news conferenceon Saturday ( Aug. 24 ) , is the last nail in the coffin for Boeing ’s first Starliner Crew Test Flight , whose astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita " Suni " Williams have been stuck aboard the ISS since June , waiting for NASA officials to assess several technical matter that appear during Starliner ’s voyage to space .
The Boeing Starliner crew capsule approaches the ISS on a test flight.
Originally plan to last as few as eight days , the first crew test flight of Boeing ’s space vehicle was marred by numerous helium leaks and thruster faults on its outward branch , delaying its return by more than two months .
Now , follow an authority - wide review , NASA has decided that there is too much dubiety for the space vehicle to safely bring its crew home .
" NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will render with [ SpaceX ’s ] Crew-9 next February , and that Starliner will come back uncrewed , " NASA AdministratorBill Nelsonsaid at a news conference on Aug. 24 . " I want you to hump that Boeing has work very hard with NASA to get the necessary data to make this decision . We need to further empathize the root effort and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our assured gang access to the ISS . "
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are safe and healthy aboard the ISS, and have plenty of work to keep them busy until their departure in February 2025.
Starliner blasted off on itsinaugural crew exam flightfrom Florida ’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5 . But not long after insert orbit , a figure of faults appeared on the spacecraft — include fivehelium leaksand five failures of its reaction control condition system ( RCS ) thrusters .
This pressure engineers to troubleshoot issues from the ground . test bear at Starliner ’s deftness in White Sands , New Mexico , revealed that during the spacecraft ’s climb to the ISS , the polytetrafluoroethylene seals inside the five faulty RCS thrusterslikely stick hot and bulged outof place to impede the propellent flow , according to NASA .
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A hotfire tryout conducted while the craft was docked to the ISS on July 27 showed the jabbing was back at normal layer , but NASA engineers were still concerned that the problem could re-emerge during the craft ’s descent back to Earth . They were also disturbed that the helium leaks could knock out some of the craft ’s orbital maneuvering and attitude control system ( OMAC ) thruster , which keep the ballistic capsule on a good flight path .
" There was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters,“Steve Stich , the program managing director for NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , said at the news league . " If we had a way to accurately prognosticate what the thrusters would do for the undock and all the way through the deorbit burn and through the separation sequence , I think we would have taken a dissimilar course of action . "
NASA ’s young program is to bring the astronauts home aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule alternatively . The vehicle will be transport to the ISS on Sept. 24 carry members of the ISS ’s Crew-9 , who will take over from the current Crew-8 aboard the space station . Instead of Crew-9 ’s usual four - mortal crew , two cosmonaut will go to the ISS to leave space for Wilmore and Williams to devolve in February 2025 .
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The Starliner ejection seat is expected to undock from the ISS and make a controlled , uncrewed stock back to Earth in other September , NASA said .
Boeing construct the Starliner capsule as a part of NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , a partnership between the agency and private companies to ferry astronauts into miserable Earth eye socket keep an eye on the retreat of NASA ’s space shuttles in 2011 . The company has so far spent roughly$1.6 billionto address numerous setbacks in the growth of Starliner , put its long - terminal figure involvement in NASA ’s course of study into question .
" We proceed to focalize , first and foremost , on the safety of the bunch and spacecraft , " Boeingsaid in a statementposted on X on Saturday . " We are executing the missionary post as watch by NASA , and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return . "
