SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will bring astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home from the International Space Station in February 2025, NASA said Saturday.
The agency’s decision marks the latest setback for Boeing’s expensive and often-delayed Starliner program, and means extending the astronauts’ intended eight-day journey to a total of eight months.
Since Boeing first received its $4.3 billion contract with NASA in 2014, the Starliner effort has run more than $1.5 billion over budget, following a failed first flight and a host of subsequent problems, including faulty parachutes, fire protective tape, rust, and corrosion. an issue involving an oxygen tank pressure control valve, and more recently, a helium leak that could endanger the vehicle’s thrusters.
Currently docked at the International Space Station, the Boeing Starliner will return to Earth idle, despite Boeing’s insistence that the Starliner is capable of carrying Williams and Wilmore home safely.
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