Ranking Members Lofgren and Sorensen Statement on NASA Decision to Return Starliner to Earth Uncrewed
(WASHINGTON, DC) --Today, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the space agency’s decision to return the Boeing Starliner spacecraft to Earth uncrewed. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain on the International Space Station and are slated to return early next year on Crew Dragon.
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Ranking Member Eric Sorensen (D-IL) made the following statement:
“NASA’s decision to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station on a Crew Dragon vehicle rather than the Boeing Starliner flight test vehicle is the culmination of weeks of exhaustive testing and deliberation," said Ranking Members Lofgren and Sorensen. “We commend NASA and Boeing’s commitment to prioritizing safety. We thank astronauts Wilmore and Williams for their heroic teamwork, patience, and flexibility on the Crew Flight Test mission, and we look forward to their safe return home. The concerning events leading to today’s decision, however, must be understood and addressed. As leaders of the Science Committee, we will work to understand what went wrong, the impact on International Space Station operations, and the implications of the commercial crew public-private-partnership experiment on future NASA human spaceflight and exploration arrangements going forward.”
Further background on the Boeing Starliner mission is below:
In 2014, NASA awarded Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to complete the development and certification of human space transportation systems for carrying NASA crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS). One of the requirements for certification of the new vehicles was a crewed flight demonstration mission to the ISS.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon crew vehicle was certified in 2020 after a successful crewed demonstration mission and began routine, NASA astronaut crew transport to and from the ISS operations later that same year.
The Boeing Starliner crew vehicle completed its uncrewed flight test to dock with the ISS and return to Earth in 2022. On June 5, 2024, Starliner launched with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams for its Crew Flight Test (CFT), and Starliner docked with the ISS on June 6. The originally planned 8-day test mission was extended to what is now 80 days, as NASA has worked to understand the root cause of thruster performance and helium leaks that impacted Starliner’s flight to the ISS.
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