DeKalb GA News

NASA has decided to use a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to bring home astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025, following ongoing issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. The astronauts have been aboard the ISS for approximately 80 days.

The decision comes after NASA conducted a formal review on Saturday to assess whether Boeing’s Starliner vehicle was safe enough for the return journey or if SpaceX’s Crew Dragon should be used instead. CNN reported: “The news comes after the space agency held a formal review on Saturday to determine whether it would deem Boeing’s Starliner vehicle safe enough to return home with its crew — or if SpaceX’s workhorse Crew Dragon spacecraft would have to step in to save the day.”

Helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters have plagued the test flight that took Williams and Wilmore to the ISS in early June. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson commented, “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,” adding, “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine.”

The next SpaceX mission will allocate two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore on the Crew-9 flight back to Earth. They are expected to remain on-site for an additional six months, with their return now scheduled for February 2025 at the earliest.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager, explained, “The bottom line relative to bringing Starliner back is — there was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters. It was just too much risk with the crew, and so we decided to pursue the uncrewed path forward.”

Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, stated on August 7 that NASA designed its Commercial Crew Program intentionally so each spacecraft could serve as a backup for others. “We’re in kind of a new situation here and that we’ve got multiple options,” he said. “That’s something that we’re going to have to deal with in the future — we could find ourselves in a situation where we need to bring a (SpaceX) Dragon crew or a (Russian) Soyuz crew back on a Starliner.”

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell affirmed their readiness via social media: "SpaceX stands ready to support @NASA however we can."