NASA’s “Tough Decision” to Leave Stranded Astronauts Puts Their Safety First

NASA faced an unexpected challenge when astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were left stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024. Their return journey was delayed due to propulsion issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

The Boeing Starliner, launched on June 5, 2024, experienced several critical failures. Five maneuvering thrusters stalled, and multiple helium leaks were detected, alongside a faulty propellant valve.

In light of the Starliner’s malfunctions, NASA devised a new plan. It was decided that astronauts Wilmore and Williams would return home aboard the SpaceX Crew-9 mission instead.

To accommodate Wilmore and Williams on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, NASA made the difficult decision to reduce the Crew-9 team from four to two members.

While Boeing did not have a representative to talk on behalf of the company at NASA’s news conference, the company did issue a statement.

The return of Boeing’s empty Starliner is another hurdle in a decade filled with difficulties for the company. In 2014, NASA selected both Boeing and SpaceX to create spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the ISS.

NASA Chief Astronaut Joe Acaba, based at the Johnson Space Center, made the call to select Nick Hague to command the Crew-9 mission.

Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, who were originally slated for the Crew-9 mission, were reassigned. This decision, while challenging, was necessary to ensure the safe return of Wilmore and Williams.

Nick Hague, an astronaut with 203 days logged in space, is no stranger to challenges. In 2018, he survived a rocket booster failure during his first launch, leading to a dramatic in-flight abort and safe landing.

For cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, Crew-9 will mark his first trip to space. An engineer with a strong background in spacecraft and upper stage operations, Gorbunov’s skills will be crucial for maintaining the ISS’s systems.

“It’s been a long summer for our team,” said Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, who said that the situation with the thrusters was too complicated to know whether or not they might fail at a critical time. “There was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters.”

While the hard work and inconvenience of the extended stay might have lasting effects on Wilmore’s and Williams’s bodies, the excitement of life in orbit is one that these astronauts spent their lives working toward.

Wilmore and Williams are not alone in their experience. Frank Rubio, who holds the record as the longest astronaut in space after his visit to the ISS lasted just over a year ago, has been helping out his friends up in space.

While the astronauts will not return until next year, Rubio said that “they’ve done a fantastic job of dealing with adversity.”

Wilmore and Williams will stay aboard the ISS until February 2025, when they will return to Earth on the Crew-9 Dragon capsule.

Despite the challenges, NASA’s confidence in the Crew-9 members is unwavering. “I have the utmost confidence in all our crew,” said Joe Acaba.

Although Cardman and Wilson will sit this spaceflight out, NASA agency officials stated that these astronauts “are eligible for reassignment on a future mission.”

NASA spacecraft generally fly with at least one US military pilot aboard. However, the reassigned astronauts from Crew-9, Cardman and Wilson, are a scientist and an engineer by training, respectively.

While Cardman and Wilson won’t be flying on Crew-9, they remain part of NASA’s future mission plans.

While Boeing’s Starliner was a setback for Boeing, the US space program is not suffering a setback from the company’s failures because NASA planned.

As mentioned earlier, NASA is working with Boeing and SpaceX. While Boeing has faced significant setbacks with their one rocket, SpaceX has launched multiple tests in the last few years in preparation for its first manned mission.

“This was a test mission, but sometimes in tests, the answer is, you’ve got something you need to fix,” said retired NASA astronaut Michael Fossum in a statement. “Tests don’t always prove that everything worked perfectly.”

Boeing’s contract with NASA states that the craft cannot be certified for real missions until it has had a successful test flight—which this current test has not been. If the Starliner does another test flight, it could push the first operational flight back to 2026 as soon as possible.

The decisions surrounding Crew-9 and the rescue of Wilmore and Williams reflect the resilience and determination of NASA and its international partners.