NASA astronaut Sunita Williams will remain stuck in space till February 2025; here’s why

India origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is confirmed to return to Earth in February 2025. It has been announced that Williams along with astronaut Butch Wilmore will come back using Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsule and Boeing Starliner will return from the International Space Station without the astronauts.

Initially planned for just 8 days, this mission has been delayed by 8 months now due to faulty thrusters of Boeing’s spacecraft. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has revealed that Starliner’s propulsion system, plagued by thruster malfunctions and helium leaks, posed a great a risk for a crewed return of the spacecraft.

"NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February."@SenBillNelson and agency experts are discussing today's decision on NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test. Watch live with us: https://t.co/M2ODFmLuTj pic.twitter.com/J2qvwOW4mU

— NASA (@NASA) August 24, 2024

He stated, “Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September.”

Notably, Williams flew this Boeing Starliner spacecraft along with Wilmore on June 5 but suffered from several glitches in the propulsion system including failure of 5 thrusters out of 28, multiple helium leaks in just the first 24 hours of the flight. This eight-day flight then had to delayed indefinitely.

To ensure safe return of the astronauts, NASA has decided to bring them back in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft instead of in the Starliner that will return to Earth uncrewed. Notably, Starliner, a competitor of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, has been in the works for several years now. It aimed to become the second private sector option for carrying astronauts to and from the orbit.

Nelson also stated that he spoke to Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, about the situation, who assured that Boeing would continue working on resolving the issues once Starliner is safely back on Earth. This mission has hurt Boeing’s reputation in a big way. It is now a challenge for Ortberg to restore its reputation who was appointed as the Boeing CEO last month.