Boeing Starliner Astronauts Still Stuck in Outer Space

NASA folks now think – and publicly admit – that it could be a long, long time until astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore actually come home from the International Space Station.

Specifically, the astronauts, who piloted the Boeing Starliner to the ISS more than two months ago, could now be in orbit until 2025, officials with the federal space program acknowledged in a press conference on Wednesday.

There is also now a decent chance, NASA officials acknowledged, that the Boeing commercial crew spacecraft’s issues pose enough of a safety risk that Williams, the mission pilot, and Wilmore, the mission commander, won’t fly home aboard Starliner at all.

Instead, the space agency is looking at the possibility of bringing the astronauts home aboard Crew Dragon, built by SpaceX, Boeing’s competitor, in February 2025.

In a statement to ABC News, Boeing said “we still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rational” and that it could bring the astronauts home.

This is only the latest in a miles-long string of setbacks for the aerospace giant, which has been dealing with fallout from the 2019 and 2020 crashes of two 737 Max jets, and started this year with a panel blowing off a 737 Max 9 midair during a January Alaska Airlines flight.

And then there’s Starliner.

Boeing was supposed to have Starliner through its crewed flight test by 2017, but the project has been running years behind schedule and more than $1.5 billion over budget. (On top of that, the company has recently written off another $125 million in unexpected costs for the program.)

The spacecraft was supposed to finally thunder off the launchpad for this crucial flight in May, but, due to a series of delays caused by helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters, didn’t manage to launch until June 5. When the spacecraft, dubbed “Calypso” by Williams and Wilmore, docked at the ISS, five of its 28 thrusters failed to fire. More helium leaks were discovered soon after that.

Since then, NASA and Boeing engineers have been running tests to try and sort out these issues with extensive analysis and ground testing. Along the way, what was once an eight-day-long sojourn has morphed into more than two months aboard the ISS for Williams and Wilmore. Despite these delays, officials have continued to insist that the astronauts would be returning to Earth soon and would do so aboard Starliner — until now, that is.

During the press conference, Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, maintained that the “prime option” is to have the crew fly home on Starliner, but he acknowledged that NASA officials started talking with SpaceX about a backup plan last month. “In the last few weeks, we have decided to make sure we have that capability there, as our community, I would say, got more and more uncomfortable,” Stich said.

So how will this backup plan work?

SpaceX currently sends four astronauts up to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon space capsule every six months to rotate out the ISS crew of six. If Williams and Wilmore can’t use Starliner, SpaceX will only send up two astronauts aboard Crew Dragon when it launches September 24 or later. (SpaceX is pushing back its launch by about a month while officials sort out what to do about Starliner.) From there, the astronauts will become part of the regular ISS crew, hitching a ride home in February.

If NASA goes with this option, that is, a decision they’re expected to make a little later this month.

“We could take either path,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s space operations mission directorate. “And reasonable people could pick either path depending on where their view is on our position and the uncertainty.”

Starliner won’t just stay docked to the ISS in perpetuity though. Boeing officials have continued to maintain that the spacecraft is safe for the astronauts. However, if NASA opts to go with SpaceX instead, Starliner will be returning to Earth in September, just minus its crew.