Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in February instead of the Boeing Starliner that they used to reach the International Space Station.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson delivered the news during a briefing on Saturday, ending months of speculation over how much longer the astronauts would remain in limbo.
The Starliner will instead return to earth from the ISS without a crew, allowing NASA and Boeing to determine root causes of its malfunction so it can continue to serve as a piece of the space agency’s plans to maintain access to the ISS, he added.
“Spaceflight is risky even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight by nature is neither safe or routine,” Nelson said, adding that “our core value is safety and it is our North Star.”
The two astronauts have been aboard the International Space Station since June while the original plan was for the mission to last just eight days. A helium leak and thruster malfunctions on the Starliner has kept them in space for months while NASA and Boeing consider ways to being them back.
On Aug. 2, Boeing said it was confident that its spacecraft would be able to being back Williams and Wilmore. But on Aug., NASA revealed that discussions had evolved, saying it was more seriously considering SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, which has been taking astronauts to and from the ISS for four years.
But that could be complicated by the fact that the spacesuits that Wilmore and Williams have are compatible with the Starliner but not with the Dragon capsule.
Despite the months-long delay, NASA has said the astronauts are not “stranded” on the ISS.