Astronauts Trapped by Boeing’s Starliner Woes Face Lengthy Delay for Return to Earth

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the NASA astro­nauts strand­ed on the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion (ISS) for over two months due to issues with Boe­ing’s Star­lin­er space­craft, received dev­as­tat­ing news about their poten­tial return to Earth.

Starliner Troubles Prolong NASA Astronauts’ Stay in Space

The U.S. space agency revealed a con­tin­gency plan that would launch a two-per­son crew on SpaceX’s Crew‑9 mis­sion in Sep­tem­ber, but the astro­nauts would still not return to Earth until months lat­er, poten­tial­ly as late as Feb­ru­ary 2025. 

This announce­ment is anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant set­back for the embat­tled Boe­ing, which has been deal­ing with a series of prob­lems plagu­ing its com­mer­cial jets.

NASA Considers Rescue Mission Options

The Star­lin­er crew’s return mis­sion has been delayed sev­er­al times since their ini­tial launch in June, with the space­craft expe­ri­enc­ing leaks and thruster issues dur­ing its jour­ney to the ISS. 

Experts had pre­vi­ous­ly sug­gest­ed that NASA might be forced to launch a res­cue mis­sion, with SpaceX’s Crew Drag­on being the like­ly choice to bring the astro­nauts back.

Boeing’s Reputation and Contracts in Jeopardy

The ongo­ing issues with the Star­lin­er space­craft have been a sig­nif­i­cant blow to Boe­ing’s rep­u­ta­tion, as the com­pa­ny was once con­sid­ered one of the most admired aero­space and defense companies.

The prob­lems have also cost the com­pa­ny bil­lions of dol­lars, and NASA had award­ed Boe­ing a $4.2 bil­lion con­tract to build the Star­lin­er as a taxi for astro­nauts to the ISS.