Another blow for Boeing as NASA suspends all space missions with its spacecraft – after a scandal over stranded astronauts

NASA has halted all future Boeing space missions due to the malfunctioning Starliner, leaving two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).

The agency revealed this week that Elon Musk’s SpaceX will become the frontrunner in 2025, leaving Boeing completely off schedule.

SpaceX has been called in to rescue astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been on the ISS for four months, when it returns them to Earth in February next year, with the mission scheduled for about a week.

NASA said Tuesday that the decision to remove Boeing was intended to better understand what went wrong when the spacecraft failed its mission, with several spills occurring during the 24-hour journey to the orbiting laboratory.

“The timing and configuration of Starliner’s next flight will be determined once there is a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification,” NASA said Tuesday.

“This determination includes considerations for incorporating lessons learned from the Crew Flight Test, approval of final certification deliverables, and operational readiness,” the agency added.

Before Starliner’s disastrous first crewed test flight, NASA had high hopes for the spacecraft, aiming to launch its first operational mission in early 2025.

But now it is unclear when Boeing will obtain the necessary certification to allow Starliner to fly crewed missions again.

NASA is weighing several options for the spacecraft’s system certification, including “opportunities for a potential Starliner flight in 2025,” the agency said. But it is unclear that this flight could have a crew on board.

Williams and Wilmore departed for the ISS on June 5 aboard Boeing’s Starliner.

The spacecraft – which was built and developed with more than $4 billion in taxpayer money – was plagued by helium leaks and thruster problems in the weeks leading up to launch, and even on the day of it.

Starliner delivered the two astronauts safely to the ISS, but by the time it got there, more helium leaks had developed and five of the 28 thrusters had failed.

Williams and Wilmore were originally scheduled to spend just eight days on the ISS, but technical problems with their spacecraft forced it to remain on the space station for three months.

And during this time, experts on the ground debated whether it would be safe for them to return home on Starliner.

The spacecraft ultimately returned to Earth without a crew on September 7, leaving Williams and Wilmore on the ISS until February 2025.

They should be able to return home with the Crew-9 mission launched on September 28.

NASA’s announcements are a way to better understand what went wrong when the spacecraft failed its mission earlier this year to carry astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to and from the ISS

By then they will have spent eight months in space.

Last month, the stranded astronauts announced that they had rejected a rescue plan on Boeing’s Starliner due to “lack of time.”

An option was considered to have the astronauts return on the Starliner, but ultimately NASA decided that there were high risks involved and that it could cause their deaths.

In a press conference, Wilmore said they had run out of time to fully test the spacecraft’s systems to make a decision on how they would return.

The father of two explained that they were unable to complete tests on the systems on board the Starliner in time to avoid disrupting the ISS schedule for other spacecraft arriving in the coming months.

“There were things we just couldn’t get comfortable with. The data could have ended up there. We simply ran out of time,” he said.

Wilmore acknowledged the series of accidents, saying there have been “some tough times” since their mission began, and it was difficult to see Starliner returning home without them.

Their extended stay has also proven to be a challenge for their families on Earth. Wilmore and his wife have two daughters, one a senior in high school and another in college.

Wilmore said the delayed return mission will cause him to miss most of his youngest daughter’s senior year, and he didn’t get to spend the summer with his eldest before she went back to college.

But he hopes his absence will make them stronger. “They will learn from this, and they will grow from this,” he said.

Sunita left her husband and two dogs at home when Starliner left more than three months ago.

She said she misses walking her dogs in the morning and hearing the sounds of the day beginning on Earth, like birds chirping.

But being able to watch her home planet go by from the ISS window “takes you to a different place, it’s very peaceful here,” she said.

In 2014, NASA signed $4.3 billion contracts with Boeing and SpaceX as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program, tasking them with developing spacecraft to transport crew and cargo to the ISS.

At the time, Boeing had already built a strong reputation in the industry, while SpaceX had just joined the commercial space race.

But in the years since, SpaceX has proven to be a worthy competitor. Elon Musk’s $200 billion company has already launched nine crewed missions to the ISS, while Boeing has yet to be certified for its first mission.