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Back in early June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and headed to the International Space Station. They docked at the ISS, but not without several mechanical issues. The Starliner crew was only supposed to stay about a week, but they’ve been stuck at the station since. Now, NASA says it’s forming plans for the two-person crew’s return – and it involves them catching a ride home with SpaceX.

In a word, NASA still isn’t sure if Starliner can make it back safely. The craft suffered a helium leak and failed thrusters en route to the station.

Yesterday, NPR reported that the administration recently pushed back a SpaceX Dragon mission launch to hash out Starliner’s return plans. Dragon was originally heading to the ISS later this month on a four-person mission called Crew-9. NASA says it pushed that mission launch to September. Additionally, it may nix two of the crew’s roster to make room for Wilmore and Williams to fly back to Earth.

Steve Stitch is NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager. He recently told NPR, “Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open.”

After its Crew-9 mission launch, Dragon plans to return to Earth in February 2025. The June 2024 Starliner mission was only supposed to last eight days.

As we reported in June, Boeing is seeking certification for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.  NASA selected Boeing as a program candidate back in 2014, along with SpaceX. This is Starliner’s third test flight, its first with a live crew. In 2019, an unmanned test flight failed to dock at the ISS. Another unmanned flight test in 2022 was a success. SpaceX has been certified with the program for years now.

Laura Forczyk is the executive director of Astralytical and a space industry analyst. Forczyk told NPR, “None of this is good news for Boeing. It’s a hurt to their reputation. It is a financial hit because these are fixed-price contracts. They are losing a lot of money on the Starliner program and on this particular mission.”

NASA says it will make a final decision about the Starliner crew’s path home later this month.

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Sarah Kennedy

Sarah Kennedy joined the MotorBiscuit team as managing editor in 2021 and brings with her a bevy of automotive expertise. She’s an ASE-Certified Automotive Service Consultant and licensed car salesperson with over a decade of shop operations experience.

Sarah was the creator of “Shop Smarts” for MOTOR Magazine and was a contributor from 2013 to 2020. Her work earned her a Gold Medalist award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2014 and Bronze Medalist awards from the International Automotive Media Competition in 2014 and 2015.

She has attended the Automotive Management Institute and earned her bachelor’s degree in English from The Ohio State University.