NASA To Decide Saturday Whether Astronauts Will Ride Boeing's Starliner Home — Or Use SpaceX's...

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NASA officials will announce their final decision on Saturday as to whether two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — will return to Earth on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft or hitch a ride home with SpaceX instead — a decision that could have a huge impact across the rapidly evolving space industry.

Here's the backstory. Boeing launched its first crewed Starliner mission on June 5 for what was supposed to be an eight-day sojourn on the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is meant to be the final, crucial hurdle before the capsule is certified to conduct regular astronaut transportation flights to and from the ISS.

But in the final phase of its approach to the station, the Starliner spacecraft experienced a series of technical issues — the failure of several thrusters and helium leaks in the propulsion system.

"Our big concern is having a successful de-orbit burn — making sure that the [propulsion] system works just the way it needs to all the way through the de-orbit burn," NASA associate administrator Ken Bowersox said during a press conference earlier this month.

NASA has acknowledged that officials inside the organization disagree on the correct course of action moving forward . Boeing, for its part, has made public proclamations on the safety of Starliner and the thoroughness of the test campaign.

Saturday's high-stakes decision will lay the debate to rest. If the agency determines that Starliner is not safe enough to fly home, it would undock from the station empty, and Williams and Wilmore would return onboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. (Starliner could still safely return to the surface autonomously in this scenario, but the optics aren't great.)

NASA has already delayed the launch of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the ISS by one month, to September 24; Williams and Wilmore would use that vehicle to return to Earth at the end of its stay — in February 2025.