"Starliner" problem

Astronauts are stuck on the ISS until February 2025

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will have to remain on the ISS as the Boeing Starliner space transporter is causing problems.

(Bild: AP)

After "Dreamliner", "Starliner" is now also causing problems: The space transporter of the US aerospace company Boeing and NASA is not ready for use. As a result, two astronauts now have to stay in space much longer than planned. 

The US space agency NASA will not be able to return the two astronauts, who have already been on board the International Space Station (ISS) much longer than originally planned due to problems with the "Starliner", to Earth until next February and with a different spacecraft, the "Crew Dragon" from SpaceX. This was announced by NASA at a press conference on Saturday.

Return transportation with SpaceX transporter
This decision was made for safety reasons, said NASA CEO Bill Nelson. According to this plan, NASA astronaut Suni Williams and her colleague Barry Wilmore will return on the "Crew Dragon" from Elon Musk's company SpaceX in February 2025.

NASA boss Bill Nelson

(Bild: AP)

The launch of "Crew 9" with the "Crew Dragon", currently scheduled for September, would then only be carried out with two astronauts instead of four. Williams and Wilmore are to become part of this crew and return to Earth with their two colleagues in 2025. This means that the crisis-ridden "Starliner" will fly back to Earth without a crew.

A week turned into months
Williams and Wilmore arrived at the ISS at the beginning of June on the first manned test flight of the Starliner. The mission had actually only been planned for around a week, but then numerous technical problems arose on the Starliner - including with the engines and helium leaks.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board the ISS

(Bild: AP)

As a result, NASA considered for a long time whether it would be better to bring the two astronauts back to Earth on the Starliner or - months later - on the Crew Dragon.

"Starliner" was to be an alternative to Musk's transporter
The "Starliner" from US aerospace company Boeing is a partially reusable spacecraft consisting of an approximately three-metre-high capsule for the crew and a service module. Unlike SpaceX's "Crew Dragon", it does not land on water, but on earth.

After years of delays, the spacecraft set off on its first manned test flight from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida at the beginning of June. In May 2022, the Starliner successfully completed its first unmanned flight to the ISS, where it spent four days. In future, it will transport astronauts to the ISS as an alternative to the Crew Dragon space capsule.