Boeing Starliner to fly from the space station and return without astronauts

HOUSTON – NASA is preparing to return the empty Boeing Starliner spacecraft home on autopilot Friday, ending the vehicle’s first test flight with astronauts plagued by problems that began before the spacecraft left Earth.

The Starliner arrived at the ISS in early June with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as part of Boeing’s crewed flight test to certify the spacecraft for future manned missions. When the Starliner undocks at 6:04 p.m. Friday, however, the spacecraft will not be returning a crew to Earth.

After a series of problems with helium leaks and reaction control thrusters, Starliner will land in New Mexico after midnight Saturday.

Williams and Wilmore launched from Florida in June on an 8-day mission, but due to the current situation with Starliner, they will spend nearly nine months in space. They will remain in orbit until they are SpaceX arrives.

Over the summer, NASA officials refuted claims that the experienced astronauts were “stranded in space.” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich reiterated that view on Wednesday.

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“They were never stuck or stranded. They always found a way to leave the space station,” Stich said.

Starliner leaving astronauts in space led to a lot of behind-the-scenes problem-solving for teams at NASA, Boeing and SpaceX. This required a new game plan for spacesuits, spacecraft configuration and the ejection of two astronauts from the upcoming Crew-9 launch.

NASA and Boeing have stressed that despite the problems with Starliner, it would be safe to return the astronauts to Earth in an emergency. After Starliner undocks, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried the Crew-8 mission astronauts to the ISS will serve as a lifeboat in an emergency.

The astronauts moved the cargo pallet onto Dragon to make room for the Starliner astronauts in case they urgently needed to leave the ISS. However, the Starliner spacesuits that Williams and Wilmore wore on their trip to the ISS are not compatible with the SpaceX vehicle or the temporary configuration of the Crew 8 vehicle.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, are seen as they prepare to exit the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to board the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for the Crew Flight Test launch Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

(NASA)

Wilmore and Williams will stay on the space station until February 2025, then return to Earth on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. They will be joined by two astronauts from NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which is scheduled to launch later this month. The astronauts will wear compatible suits for their return flight. The Crew-9 mission will also carry an additional SpaceX spacesuit. Another SpaceX spacesuit was recently carried on a cargo resupply mission to the ISS.

“The way the Dragon is configured for emergency use, Butch and Suni can ride on the cargo pallet in the makeshift seats I described. But that’s an unsuitable configuration, so spacesuits won’t work there,” said Stich. “The Dragon is configured to carry four suits and four people in suits.”

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To make room on the incoming Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft, NASA decided to send NASA astronaut Nike Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov into space, leaving two spots open for Wilmore and Williams. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were excluded from the Crew-9 mission and could fly on a future mission.

Official portraits of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9, featuring Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and Aleksandr Gorbunov. NASA announced in late August that Wilson and Cardman will remain on Earth to make room on SpaceX’s Dragon to bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home.

(NASA)

When Starliner returns to Earth, engineers will continue to try to understand the problems the spacecraft encountered in orbit.

“A lot of things on the vehicle are working really well,” Stich said. “What we really need to do is look at the things that didn’t work the way we expected. Like I talked about the helium leaks. Can we fix those leaks? Test them on the ground and then confidently go ahead and fly again.”

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Stich said NASA is still working on sending astronauts into space on the Starliner again next year.

Boeing’s crewed Starliner flight test came 10 years after NASA awarded the contracts to SpaceX and Boeing. Both companies conducted uncrewed flight tests before sending humans to the ISS, but Boeing’s first attempt in 2019 failed to make it to the space station, forcing the company to make a second attempt in 2022.

When SpaceX launches the Crew-9 mission later this month, it will be the company’s tenth flight carrying NASA astronauts.