Boeing Starliner astronauts will return home on a SpaceX Dragon in 2025, NASA confirms

On Saturday (Aug. 24), NASA announced its final decision regarding the fates of the two astronauts aboard the International Space Station whose original eight-day space jaunt had turned into a nebulous multi-month excursion. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who launched to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule on June 5, will return home no earlier than February of 2025.

Furthermore, NASA and Boeing jointly decided that Williams and Wilmore will not head back to Earth aboard the same Starliner capsule that brought them to the ISS. Rather, they will climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule for their descent to our planet, a vessel dedicated to the Crew-9 mission set to launch in September that will be modified to accommodate the Starliner astronauts. That capsule will only launch with two crewmembers in order to create space for Wilmore and Williams when the time comes to return to Earth, and it will also be reconfigured to carry more cargo, personal items and Dragon-specific spacesuits for the Starliner duo.

Meanwhile, NASA and Boeing are going to work on bringing the Starliner capsule back to Earth, crewless, to land in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, sometime in September.

This decision comes after quite a bit of uncertainty about when the two Starliner astronauts will come back to Earth following the completion of what's known as the Crew Flight Test of their capsule; the test is named as such because this trip marked the first time Starliner embarked on a crewed mission in contrast to its previous two uncrewed tests.

"The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters on Saturday.

Safety is of concern because of what the team says is a key issue with Starliner's propulsion system — namely, its thrusters. Starliner's launch to orbit wasn't exactly perfect, having been delayed due to a minor helium leak, for instance, but its docking to the ISS was what most worried operators. Basically, during docking, the capsule experienced malfunctions in five of its 28 reaction control thrusters. Both NASA and Boeing therefore decided to extend the Starliner astronauts' stay aboard the ISS while they troubleshooted the complication — and it would appear that a solution hasn't yet been defined.

"We are dealing with a very complex issue with the thrusters," NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said during Saturday's conference. "It's challenging to predict their performance; it's challenging to predict the temperatures we'll see."