Another blow to Boeing as NASA halts all space missions with its spacecraft, following stranded astronaut scandal

NASA has halted Boeing’s entire future space mission due to the malfunction of its Starliner that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).

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

SpaceX has been selected to rescue astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore who have been on the ISS for four months when it will bring them back to Earth next February, while the mission was scheduled to last about a week.

NASA said Tuesday that the decision to remove Boeing was to better understand what went wrong when the spacecraft failed its mission, which saw several leaks during its 24-hour trip to the orbiting lab in July.

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

“This determination will include considerations to incorporate lessons learned from crew flight testing, approvals of final certification products, and operational readiness,” the agency added.

Before Starliner’s disastrous first manned test flight, NASA had high hopes for the spacecraft, targeting early 2025 for the launch of its first operational mission.

NASA has halted manned missions for Boeing’s flawed Starliner spacecraft after the fiasco that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.

But now, it’s unclear when Boeing will get the certification needed to allow the Starliner to fly manned missions again.

NASA is weighing different options for spacecraft system certification, including “windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025,” the agency said. But it is not clear that this flight can have a crew on board.

Williams and Wilmore launched to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5.

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

Starliner safely delivered the two astronauts to the ISS, but by the time it got there, more helium had sprung up and five of its 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 docked at the space station for three months.

And during that time, experts on the ground were debating whether it would be safe for them to return home with Starliner.

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

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

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

At that point, they will have spent eight months in space.

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

An option was considered to bring the astronauts back to the Starliner, but ultimately NASA decided that there were high risks associated with it and that it could cause their death.

At a news conference, Wilmore said he ran out of time to fully test the spacecraft’s systems in order to make a decision on how to return.

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

“There were things we weren’t comfortable with. The data could have gotten there. We just ran out of time,” he said.

Wilmore acknowledged the series of setbacks, saying there have been “some difficult moments” since the start of its mission, and it was hard to see Starliner coming home without them.

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

Wilmore said the delayed return mission will mean she misses most of her youngest daughter’s senior year and was unable to spend the summer with her oldest before she returns to college.

But he hopes his absence will make them stronger. “They will learn from this and 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 taking her dogs for a walk in the morning and hearing the sounds of the day starting on Earth, like birds chirping.

But being able to watch his home planet pass by from the ISS window “takes you to a different place, it’s very peaceful up here,” he 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.

By then, Boeing had already established a powerful reputation in the industry, while SpaceX had just joined the commercial space race.

But in the years since, SpaceX has proven itself to be a worthy competitor. Elon Musks $200 billion company has already launched nine manned missions to the ISS, while Boeing has yet to receive certification for its first mission.