The two test pilots for the inaugural crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft — NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — left Earth for the International Space Station under the impression their trip would last only about one week.
Months later, after determining that the technical issues the Starliner experienced on the first leg of their journey posed too much of a risk, NASA decided to return Williams and Wilmore home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
But that did not mean the astronauts would get the first flight back to Earth.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon, on a mission dubbed Crew-8, left the International Space Station on Wednesday, but Williams and Wilmore were once again be left behind for the simple reason that they were not assigned to that specific spacecraft.
Notably, the four astronauts that were assigned to Crew-8’s mission — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps as well as Alexander Grebenkin of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos — had been on the ISS since March 5, roughly three months longer than Williams and Wilmore.
That’s because the Crew-8 team was part of a regular crew rotation at the orbiting laboratory, and routine missions typically last about six months.
The team disembarked from the ISS Wednesday afternoon and headed for a splashdown off the coast of Florida. That happened on Friday at about 3:29 a.m. ET.
SpaceX
Williams and Wilmore, meanwhile, are assigned to return home aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
NASA and SpaceX even had to reconfigure the Crew-9 capsule and astronaut assignments before the mission launched September 28 to ensure there would be enough room for Williams and Wilmore to return home aboard the vehicle when it completes its ISS mission no earlier than February 2025.
That’s just one reason why the duo can’t just hop on the next ride home. Spaceflight tends to be more complex — and requires more prior planning — than that.
How Williams and Wilmore wound up here
Williams and Wilmore did not go to the ISS as part of a normal crew rotation.
Instead, the pair ventured to orbit as part of a historic effort: Starliner’s first crewed flight. They departed on June 4, mostly without their own toiletries and other personal comforts, expecting a prompt return to Earth.
Williams and Wilmore were then left in limbo by several crucial issues, including gas leaks and thruster problems, that plagued their Starliner capsule during the first leg of its trip. NASA then chose to leave the capsule — along with Williams and Wilmore — at the ISS while engineers worked to hash out what went wrong.
After weeks of uncertainty, NASA made the call in late August that it would be too risky to return Williams and Wilmore home aboard Starliner.
And the space agency had scrambled to find an alternative route home. That’s how NASA arrived at the decision to put Williams and Wilmore on Crew-9, a mission that at the time had not yet left Earth.
Two astronauts who had been slated to fly on Crew-9 before the Boeing Starliner debacle — NASA’s Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson — had to be booted off in order to make room for Williams and Wilmore on the return trip.
The Crew-9 mission then launched with just two astronauts, two empty seats, and some ballst — or deadweight — to balance out the physics of flying without a full crew of four. The Crew-9 spacecraft arrived at the ISS on September 29.
Williams and Wilmore, for the record, have now been on the space station more than 18 weeks.
And Boeing’s Starliner ultimately returned home from space empty on September 6.
So what exactly would Williams and Wilmore do for another four or five months in space?
When the pair arrived at the ISS, they were guests. But now, they’re at work, having joined Expedition 72, or the international crew of astronauts currently serving as the space station’s official staff.
Williams even took over as the commander of the entire space station on September 22.
NASA has said they’ve seamlessly integrated with the group, picking up everyday tasks aboard the orbiting laboratory.
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