NASA has suspended all future Boeing space missions due to the malfunction of its Starliner that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).
The agency revealed this week that Elon Musk’s SpaceX will become the front-runner for 2025 launches, leaving Boeing completely off the schedule.
SpaceX has been chosen to rescue astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore who have been on the ISS for four months when it will bring them back to Earth next February, while the mission was scheduled for about a week.
NASA said Tuesday that the decision to retire Boeing was to better understand what went wrong when the spacecraft failed its mission, which suffered several leaks during the 24-hour journey to the orbital laboratory in July.
“The timing and configuration of the next Starliner flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,” NASA said Tuesday.
‘This determination will include considerations to incorporate lessons learned from crew flight testing, final certification product approvals, and operational readiness,’ the agency added.
Before Starliner’s disastrous first crewed test flight, NASA had high hopes for the spacecraft, targeting early 2025 for the launch of its first operational mission.
NASA halted crewed missions of Boeing’s faulty Starliner spacecraft after the fiasco that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.
But it is now unclear when Boeing will obtain the necessary certification to allow Starliner to fly manned missions again.
NASA is weighing different options for spacecraft system certification, including “windows of opportunity for a possible Starliner flight in 2025,” the agency said. But it is not clear that this flight could have a crew on board.
Williams and Wilmore launched toward the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5.
The spacecraft, which was built and developed with more than $4 billion of taxpayer money, had been plagued by helium leaks and propellant problems in the weeks leading up to launch, and even on launch day.
Starliner delivered the two astronauts to the ISS safely, but by the time it got there, it had leaked more helium and five of its 28 boosters had failed.
Williams and Wilmore were originally scheduled to spend only eight days on the ISS, but technical problems with their spacecraft forced her to remain docked with the space station for three months.
And during this time, experts on the ground were debating whether it would be safe for them to return home on Starliner.
The spacecraft eventually returned to Earth without its crew on September 7, leaving Williams and Wilmore stranded on the ISS until February 2025.
tThey should be able to return home with the Crew-9 mission that launched on September 28.
NASA’s announcements are a way to better understand what went wrong when the spacecraft failed in its mission to transport astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to and from the ISS earlier this year.
By then, they will have spent eight months in space.
Last month, stranded astronauts revealed they had rejected a rescue plan on Boeing’s Starliner due to “lack of time.”
The option of returning the astronauts on the Starliner was considered, but NASA ultimately decided that there were high risks associated with it and that it could cause their deaths.
At a news conference, Wilmore said they were running out of time to fully test the spacecraft’s systems and make a decision on how to return.
The father of two explained that they were unable to complete testing on the systems aboard the Starliner in time to avoid disrupting the ISS schedule for other spacecraft arriving in the coming months.
‘There were things we just couldn’t feel comfortable with. The data could have gotten there. “We simply ran out of time,” he said.
Wilmore acknowledged the series of setbacks, saying there have been “some difficult moments” since the beginning of its mission and that it was difficult to see Starliner return home without them.
Their extended stay has also proven a challenge for their families on Earth. Wilmore and his wife have two daughters, one who is a senior in high school and another who is in college.
Wilmore said the delay in the return mission will cause him to miss most of his youngest daughter’s senior year, and that he wasn’t able to spend the summer with his older daughter before she returned to college.
But he hopes his absence will make them stronger. “They will learn from this and grow from this,” he said.
Sunita left her husband and two dogs at home when Starliner took off more than three months ago.
He said he misses walking his dogs in the morning and listening to the sounds of the day beginning on Earth, like birdsong.
But being able to see his home planet passing by through the window of the ISS “takes you to a different place, there’s a lot of peace up here,” he said.
In 2014, NASA signed contracts worth $4.3 billion with Boeing and SpaceX as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program, tasking them with developing spacecraft to transport crew and cargo to the ISS.
At the time, Boeing had already built a powerful reputation in the industry, while SpaceX was just joining the commercial space race.
But in the years since then, SpaceX has proven itself to be a worthy competitor. Elon Musks’ company, valued at $200 billion, has already launched nine crewed missions to the ISS, while Boeing has yet to obtain certification for its first mission.