Cape Canaveral, Florida — The POT decided Saturday that it is too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in the new space capsule. Boeingso they will have to wait until SpaceX pick them up next year. What was supposed to have been a week-long trial trip for the couple will now last more than eight months.
The experienced pilots have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since early June. A series of annoying thruster malfunctions and helium leaks on the new capsule marred their trip to the ISS, and they ended up in a holding pattern while engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the return trip.
After nearly three months, the decision was finally made on Saturday by NASA’s top executives. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return in February, on a SpaceX shipIts empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot to make landfall in the New Mexico desert.
As Starliner test pilots, the pair would have overseen this critical final leg of the journey.
“By its nature, a test flight is neither safe nor routine,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “So the decision … is a compromise for safety.”
“It was not an easy decision, but it was absolutely the right one”added Jim Free, NASA associate administrator.
The decision is a blow to Boeing and adds to the safety concerns plaguing its aerospace division. Boeing had been counting on the first manned flight of the Starliner to revive the troubled program after years of delays and rising costs. The company had insisted that Starliner was safe based on all recent thruster testing in space and on Earth.
Boeing did not participate in NASA’s Saturday press conference, but issued a statement: “Boeing continues to focus first on the safety of the crew and the spacecraft. We are conducting missions as determined by NASA and are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”