Boeing’s astronaut capsule is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Friday without any crew on board, following safety concerns that have plagued the spacecraft in recent months. NASA’s two test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will remain at the space station until next year, as the Starliner capsule prepares to undock and land in the New Mexico desert six hours later.
Originally, Wilmore and Williams were supposed to return to Earth in June after launching in the Starliner, but issues such as thruster failures and helium leaks during the journey to the space station led NASA to deem it too risky for the pilots to return on the troubled capsule. As a result, the capsule now carries only their empty seats, blue spacesuits, and some old station equipment, and SpaceX will bring back the pilots in late February, extending their mission to more than eight months.
Boeing’s first astronaut flight has been marred by numerous delays and setbacks. NASA had enlisted Boeing and SpaceX for orbital taxi services following the retirement of the space shuttles over a decade ago. Boeing faced significant problems during its first test flight without any crew in 2019, leading to a costly repeat of the test flight in 2022 that uncovered even more flaws, resulting in a repair bill exceeding $1 billion.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing for its tenth crew ferry flight for NASA since 2020 later this month. The Dragon capsule will embark on a half-year expedition with only two astronauts on board, reserving two seats for the return journey for Wilmore and Williams.
