Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth in February in a SpaceX Dragon capsule reasonably than the Boeing Starliner they used to achieve the International Space Station.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the news at a press conference on Saturday, ending months of speculation about how long the astronauts would remain in limbo.
Instead, the Starliner will return to Earth from the ISS with out a crew, giving NASA and Boeing the chance to find out the foundation causes of the malfunction so it may well proceed to be a part of the space agency’s plans to keep up access to the ISS, he added.
“Spaceflight is risky even in its safest and most routine phases. And a test flight is inherently neither safe nor routine,” Nelson said, adding, “Our core values are safety and it is our guiding light.”
The two astronauts have been on board the International Space Station since June, although the mission was originally only presupposed to last eight days. Helium leak and engine malfunction The Starliner has kept them in space for months while NASA and Boeing consider ways to bring them back.
On August 2, Boeing said it was confident its spacecraft could bring Williams and Wilmore back. But in August, NASA announced that talks had evolved and said it was more seriously considering SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, which has been carrying astronauts to and from the ISS for 4 years.
However, this could possibly be made harder by the undeniable fact that Wilmore and Williams’ spacesuits are compatible with the Starliner but not with the Dragon capsule.
Despite the months-long delay, NASA said the astronauts weren’t “stranded” on the ISS.
