Sunita Williams’ spaceship ready for liberation? NASA plans the next launch of Starliner for 2025, but conditions apply. peppermint

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is preparing to relaunch Boeing’s Starliner in 2025 after the spacecraft suffered a major setback during its crew flight test in June this year. The Starliner spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to space but returned to Earth without its crew in September.

Starliner flight in 2025, but conditions apply

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

“This determination will include consideration of crew flight test lessons learned, approval of final certification products, and operational readiness,” NASA said.

The US space agency further explained that it is “putting options on the table for how to achieve system certification”. This includes “windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025”.

In August 2023, NASA said that after a “successful first flight with a crew”, it would complete work on certifying the Starliner system as an operational crew system for long-duration crew rotation missions to the space station. Will do it.

Starliner malfunctions on first crewed flight

Starliner’s first crewed flight to space was launched on June 5 with Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore aboard. It reached the International Space Station on June 6.

The two Starliner astronauts were to return to Earth on a Boeing spacecraft within a few days. However, their return was delayed by months after technical problems were discovered in the Starliner, including helium leaks and thruster failures.

Wilmore and Williams’s week-long trip turned into a mission lasting more than eight months. Many feared that both astronauts were “trapped” or “trapped” in space. However, NASA said they could return safely in an “emergency” situation.

To ensure the safety of the two NASA astronauts, the US space agency later decided to return Starliner without its crew on September 6. The Boeing spacecraft landed in New Mexico on September 7.

Sunita Williams will come home in 2025

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will now return home aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in February 2025. They will accompany members of the Crew-9 mission – NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos astronaut Alexander Gorbunov – on their return space flight in February 2025.

NASA announced on October 1, 2024 that the investigation had been completed, and Crew-9 Dragon was now the normal and emergency return spacecraft for a four-person crew. Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams will continue their work aboard the space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew.

Could Boeing’s Starliner get NASA certification?

After Starliner’s successful return, NASA said in a statement, “Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft without a crew, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible.”

“NASA looks forward to our continued work with the Boeing team to move toward certification of Starliner for crew rotation missions to the space station,” the statement said.

Earlier, Starliner had failed a 2019 test to launch to the ISS without a crew, but mostly succeeded in a 2022 do-over attempt, where it also suffered thruster problems. A June mission with its first crew was required before NASA could certify the capsule for routine flights.

But now, Starliner’s crew certification path is uncertain, reuters Reported on August 24 – when NASA officials announced that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, not Starliner, would bring both astronauts home.

Boeing struggled for years to develop Starliner — to compete with Crew Dragon as a second U.S. option for sending astronauts to Earth orbit and back.

NASA, Boeing, SpaceX and crewed flights

NASA chose Boeing and SpaceX to fly crews from the US to the International Space Station in September 2014.

“These integrated spacecraft, rockets and associated systems will carry four astronauts on a NASA mission, and maintain a space station crew of seven to maximize the time devoted to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory,” NASA said.

Crew flight testing is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA said the goal of the program is “safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to the International Space Station and low Earth orbit.”