Boeing Starliner Returns Empty, NASA Enlists SpaceX to Transport Astronauts

Boeing NASA announced Saturday that it will return its Starliner capsule from the International Space Station without the astronauts it carried into orbit in early June.

With the Starliner returning to Earth empty, NASA will now be able to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which is expected to launch its ninth regular mission to the International Space Station for the agency on September 24.

Ultimately, Wilmore and Williams will remain on the ISS for another six months before returning to Earth in February aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9. The test flight was originally scheduled to last about nine days.

The decision to return the Starliner from the International Space Station empty represents a radical shift for NASA and Boeing, as the two organizations had previously insisted that the capsule was the primary option for crew return.

But the Starliner crew flight test, which was seen as the final major milestone in the spacecraft's development, ran into problems — most notably its propulsion system.

“Boeing has worked diligently with NASA to get the data needed to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a news conference with top NASA officials at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday. “We want to further understand the root causes and design improvements so that Boeing Starliner can serve as a critical part of our confirmed crewed arrival to the International Space Station.”

He stressed that the test flights were “neither safe nor routine”, and that the decision was “the result of a commitment to safety”.

NASA will now conduct another phase of its flight readiness review to determine when to return the empty Starliner to Earth.

Boeing officials have been adamant in press briefings that Starliner is safe for astronauts to return home in an emergency, despite several delays. NASA said there was a “technical disagreement” between the agency and the aerospace company, and said it assessed the risks differently than Boeing to return its crew.

However, NASA officials have repeatedly expressed their support for Boeing, and Nelson said he is “100 percent certain” that Starliner will be able to launch with a crew again someday.

“We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and the spacecraft,” Boeing said in a statement posted to X on Saturday. “We are executing the mission as NASA has specified, and preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful return without a crew.”

NASA associate administrator Ken Bowersox said NASA officials were unanimous in their decision to select SpaceX to bring the crew home.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is set to bring two astronauts aboard Crew-9 — instead of four as originally planned — to make room for Wilmore and Williams.

“SpaceX stands ready to support NASA in any way we can,” SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded in a post on the social media site X.

Boeing's Starliner “Calyps” capsule has been at the International Space Station since early June on a mission that NASA has extended indefinitely while the agency and the company try to determine why several of the spacecraft's thrusters failed during docking.

The engines, part of the spacecraft's propulsion system, are key to Starliner's safe return from the International Space Station, and NASA said Saturday that the engines are an ongoing problem.

The Starliner crew test flight was supposed to be Boeing’s last square and a major asset for NASA, which had hoped to realize its dream of having two competing companies — Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX — alternate flights to the International Space Station.

Instead, the flight test further erodes Boeing's progress in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, and with the company already racking up losses of more than $1.5 billion, it threatens the company's future involvement with it.