This Week's Adventures in Boeing > Boeing astronauts stuck in space until February 2025, may be rescued by SpaceX

 

Astronauts who were supposed to take 8-day ISS trip

may be stranded until 2025 due to Boeing spaceship issues

By 

Ronny Reyes

Published Aug. 7, 2024, 3:14 p.m. ET 

The two astronauts who have already been stuck in space for more than 60 days may have to wait until early 2025 before they can return to Earth — following a trip to the International Space Station that was supposed to last just eight days.

NASA also acknowledged that the astronauts, who arrived on the maiden voyage of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, may have to be rescued by the rival SpaceX CrewDragon, though that vessel won’t be ready until February.

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Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may be stuck in space for six more months if NASA deems it too risky to bring them back aboard Boeing’s Starliner.

NASA/AFP via Getty Images

On Wednesday, NASA announced another delay in bringing home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during a news conference, with the agency saying it’s looking more closely at an alternative plan utilizing SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.

If tests in the coming weeks suggest that making the trip home on Starliner proves too risky, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said Wilmore and Williams would have no choice but to hop on Crew-9’s return flight in February 2025.

“We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency,” Stich said.

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The spacecraft suffered helium leaks and thruster failures as it docked at the International Space Station on June 5.

AP

“We need to probably decide, likely in the middle of August, one path or the other to go ahead and meet the launch date for Crew-9,” he added.

The SpaceX mission was initially set to take off on Aug. 18 with the expectation that Starliner would have returned home by then, with the flight now delayed to Sept. 24.

The Crew-9 mission is a routine flight slated to bring four astronauts to replace members of the Crew-8 team aboard the International Space Station.

NASA said the Crew Dragon ship, which normally carries two to four passengers at a time, can fit additional occupants if needed. 

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Williams and Wilmore were originally supposed to be in space for only eight days.

AP

Although NASA is actively working with SpaceX on the contingency plan, it has yet to make a final decision on which shuttle the two astronauts will be returning home in.

“We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place,” Stich said.

Willmore and Williams were meant to spend just eight days in space following their launch aboard the Boeing Starliner on June 6 — the maiden crewed voyage for the spacecraft. 

Once in space, the crew found a series of concerning helium leaks and thruster failures that have left NASA and Boeing scrambling to find a solution.

Should SpaceX, a Boeing rival, be tapped to bring the astronauts home, it could spell another embarrassing blow to the embattled aerospace giant.

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