NASA has announced that it has decided to use SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to bring back two astronauts stranded in space for months, in a major setback for aerospace manufacturer Boeing.
The agency says it has no confidence in Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which will return to Earth unmanned, and bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore home in February 2025.
Williams and Wilmore will remain aboard the International Space Station until then, having been there since early June.
It’s the latest setback for Boeing, which has faced ongoing problems on the ground and subsequent court cases since January, when a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet in flight.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says that this decision regarding Starliner is the result of a ‘safety commitment’. “Safety is our primary and guiding principle,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return next February with nine crew members and Starliner will return without a crew,” Nelson said.
‘I want to tell you that Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the data necessary to make this decision. We want to further understand the underlying causes and design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our crew’s assured access to the ISS.’
Nielsen added that he had spoken with new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who said the company would continue to work on those issues after the Starliner’s return.
“Space travel is very dangerous, no matter how safe and routine it is,” Nelson added. A test flight is neither safe nor routine, so the decision to place Butch and Sunny on the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner to Earth without a crew is a safety concern.
‘Safety is our core principle, and it is our guiding star. And I am grateful to the teams at NASA and Boeing for the incredible and detailed work they did to reach this decision.’
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is carrying crews to the ISS from 2020.
Instead of sending a four-person crew, SpaceX will carry just two, sending Dragon to the station in late September. The crew, which will include Williams and Wilmore, will return to Earth in February 2025.
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The decision to select SpaceX as the company to return the astronauts was a ‘consensus’ among NASA officials, former astronaut Ken Bowersk told reporters.
Boeing had previously insisted it was still committed to Starliner, which suffered a mechanical failure on June 6 while docked to the ISS for an eight-day mission.
The June flight was its first crewed mission to the ISS aboard Starliner, a flagship development by the aerospace company to compete with SpaceX for contracts with NASA.
The June flight was the first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner to the ISS. This is a major project aimed at competing with SpaceX’s contracts with NASA.
Boeing’s production has slowed since a series of federal investigations began over safety concerns. Overall, the company delivered around 90 fewer aircraft this year compared to the same period last year.
According to a Wall Street Journal report published last month, the manufacturer is spending more than $1 billion in cash every month as tens of its new planes sit outside factories needing parts.
Due to parts shortages and other problems, Boeing has about 200 finished jets parked at airfields, outside plants and even in employee parking lots.
Boeing is also facing multiple lawsuits related to manufacturing irregularities after a 737 Max 9 door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Earlier also in 2018 Max planes crashed in Indonesia and in 2019 in Ethiopia in which 346 people were killed.
At a Senate hearing in June, CEO David Calhoun apologized to the families of those killed in the crash, saying the company was “absolutely committed” to the safety of future planes.
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2024-08-26 06:26:14
