After a series of technical hiccups prevented Boeing’s Starliner capsule from bringing NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore back to Earth in August 2024, it appears that yet another delay will keep the two in space for an extra few months.
Suni and Butch, who were launched aboard the first ever crewed mission of the Starliner (the Boeing Crew Flight Test) in June 2024, will now have to wait until late March 2025 or early April 2025 to return home.
What Went Wrong with the Starliner?
NASA announced during a news conference in late August that the spacecraft would not take Suni and Butch on its journey back to Earth. The decision to have an uncrewed return stemmed from issues with its propulsion system, namely multiple helium leaks and the failure of several reaction control thrusters as it approached the International Space Station (ISS) earlier in June.
NASA acknowledged the risk of bringing a crew back on the Starliner, and declared that it would be safer for Suni and Butch to stay put on the ISS. The two astronauts were meant to spend only eight days in space, but the Starliner’s setbacks have forced them to endure an ongoing wait to return on another spacecraft.
The Starliner, which had completed two uncrewed orbital flight tests in 2019 and 2022 respectively, undocked from the ISS on September 6, 2024 and began its uncrewed return after two weeks of planning. Hours later, it landed safely at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
Read More: Propulsion and Parachute Systems Delay Starliner’s Crewed Return
How Will Suni and Butch Return to Earth?
Since a crewed return was considered too risky for the Starliner, NASA announced that they would transport Suni and Butch to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon capsule as part of the Crew-9 mission.
This SpaceX mission initially intended to send a crew of four to the ISS: NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. However, with news of the Starliner’s issues, Wilson and Cardman were ultimately removed from the mission to leave two seats open for Suni and Butch on the flight back.
Following a slight delay caused by weather concerns, Crew-9 (consisting of only Hague and Gorbunov) launched on September 28, 2024 and docked on the ISS the following day, officially absorbing Suni and Butch into the crew.
Crew-9 was expected to begin its return to Earth in February 2025, coinciding with the arrival of SpaceX Crew-10 at the ISS, but NASA announced yet another delay in plans earlier this week. This is because Crew-10 is set to be on the unnamed fifth SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which is not ready yet and needs further testing according to NASA, delaying its launch date to late March 2025.
Assuming no further delays are made, Crew-10 will reach the ISS near the end of March 2025, at which point it will conduct a handover period with Crew-9 that will likely go into early April 2025. During this transition, Crew-9 will share lessons they’ve learned while on the ISS to support future scientific efforts on the station — experiments they’ve worked on include investigating blood cell development and examining the role of moisture in plant growth.
What’s Next for Suni and Butch?
What was supposed to be an eight-day mission has turned into a multiple-month wait for Suni and Butch. However, they are in no danger at all. The ISS is sufficiently stocked with food, water, clothing, and oxygen, and occasionally receives materials from resupply spacecrafts. When they’re not assisting with maintenance and experiments, the two astronauts can communicate with friends and family back home on Earth.
Meanwhile, the Starliner has faced increased scrutiny due to its technical glitches and previous management problems, with questions now surrounding its capacity to accommodate crews in the future. Despite this, plans for the next Starliner flight are already underway, although NASA will take time to consider the lessons learned from the Crew Flight Test and review additional certification requirements before setting a clear timeline. For now, the Starliner is tentatively preparing for its next mission later in 2025.
When Suni and Butch make their long-awaited homecoming, they will have potentially spent just about 10 consecutive months in space. Both of them will enter the top 8 list of NASA astronauts with the most days spent on a single spaceflight, making an unforeseen mark on the history of American space travel.
Article Sources
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Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
