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NASA has chosen SpaceX to bring home two American astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
The astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will return to Earth on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in February 2025.
This decision came after several technical problems with the Starliner, including thruster failures and a helium system leak. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will provide a reliable alternative to ensure the safe return of the astronauts.
It’s quite an interesting development in the ongoing space race between SpaceX and Boeing!
NASA picks SpaceX to bring home the American astronauts stuck in space. It's the latest blow to Boeing.
- Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon.
- The astronauts have been stuck on the ISS since June due to issues with Boeing's Starliner.
- It's another blow to Boeing, which is competing with SpaceX to deliver NASA astronauts to space.
This is possibly the biggest safety decision NASA has had to make in decades. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, during which seven astronauts died, has weighed heavily on the minds of the Starliner mission managers, many of whom were involved in that failed flight, Ars Technica reported.
"I've been very hyper-focused lately on this concept of combating organizational silence. If you look at both, unfortunately, Challenger and Columbia, you can see cases where people had the right data or a valid position to put forward, but the environment just didn't allow it," Russ DeLoach, the chief of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance said in a briefing about the Starliner mission on August 14.
Astronauts stuck in space will return with SpaceX craft, NASA says