spacetoday.net: Starliner to return from ISS without astronauts

Posted: Sun, Aug 25, 2024, 10:20 AM ET (1420 GMT)
CST-100 Starliner in orbit (Boeing)

NASA announced Saturday that Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will return to Earth without the astronauts who traveled to the station on a test flight in June. The agency said they could not resolve uncertainties about the performance of thrusters on the spacecraft that malfunctioned during the spacecraft's approach to the station in June despite extensive testing and analysis in the months that followed. Starliner will undock and make a uncrewed landing in the southwestern US in early September. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew on Starliner on the Crew Flight Test mission, will remain on the station until early next year. NASA will reassign two people who were to fly on Crew-9 in September, freeing up seats for Wilmore and Williams to use when it returns to Earth in February. NASA said Boeing's new CEO assured the agency that the company will not drop out of the commercial crew program despite this latest setback.