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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams did not return to Earth aboard Boeing’s Starliner. NASA decided on August 24, 2024, that the spacecraft should return without a crew because helium leaks and reaction-control-thruster problems made a crewed return too risky. The astronauts stayed aboard the International Space Station and returned on SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon on March 18, 2025. Starliner landed uncrewed in September 2024.
Why NASA changed the astronauts’ return plan
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5, 2024, on Starliner’s first crewed test flight. During the mission, NASA and Boeing assessed helium leaks and problems with the spacecraft’s reaction-control thrusters. Those systems matter when a spacecraft maneuvers and positions itself for return. NASA concluded that bringing the astronauts back aboard Starliner carried too much risk, and on August 24 it chose an uncrewed Starliner return instead.
The decision was about the risk of a crewed return, not a claim that Starliner could not return to Earth at all. NASA had the option to leave the astronauts aboard the ISS and use a different spacecraft for their trip home.
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What happened to Starliner and its crew
- June 5, 2024: Wilmore and Williams launched on Starliner’s crewed test flight.
- August 24, 2024: NASA announced that Starliner would return empty and that the astronauts would come home with Crew-9.
- September 6–7, 2024: Starliner autonomously undocked, deorbited, landed, and was recovered without a crew.
- March 18, 2025: Crew-9 Dragon splashed down with Wilmore, Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Their planned short test mission therefore became a months-long stay in space. The Associated Press reported that Wilmore and Williams spent 286 days in space.
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Why Dragon was the return spacecraft
NASA reassigned Wilmore and Williams to Crew-9 Dragon rather than asking them to ride Starliner home. The choice reflected the immediate situation: Starliner’s propulsion-system concerns, Dragon’s readiness for the Crew-9 return, and NASA’s ability to keep the astronauts on the ISS while arranging that return. It was a mission-specific risk decision, not a permanent verdict on either company’s spacecraft.
| Decision factor | Starliner | SpaceX Crew Dragon |
|---|---|---|
| Certification status in the 2026 NASA Office of Inspector General audit | Not certified for operational crewed missions | NASA-certified in 2020 |
| Record cited in that audit | No comparable certified operational crew-mission total stated | 12 crewed missions to and from the ISS |
| Role in the 2024–25 decision | Returned autonomously without the astronauts after NASA judged a crewed return too risky | Crew-9 carried the astronauts back to Earth in March 2025 |
The comparison describes the evidence and logistics relevant to this decision; it should not be read as a claim that one vehicle will always be the safer choice in every future mission.
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Is Starliner certified to fly astronauts now?
In its September 28, 2026 update, NASA and Boeing reported that Starliner development continued after the investigation. The update did not establish a NASA certification date or announce a definite next crewed launch date. The 2026 NASA Office of Inspector General audit still described Starliner as uncertified, while reporting that Crew Dragon had been certified in 2020 and had completed 12 crewed ISS missions.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThose are dated status reports, not a guarantee of what Starliner’s status will be later. Certification and flight plans can change as development and review proceed.
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What Starliner’s uncrewed landing did—and did not—show
Starliner’s September 2024 autonomous return showed that the spacecraft could complete that uncrewed trip home. It did not mean NASA had cleared the spacecraft to carry astronauts through the same return profile: the concerns that drove NASA’s decision were specifically about accepting the risk of a crewed return. The distinction explains how Starliner could land while Wilmore and Williams remained on the ISS.
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