NASA will bring the Starliner astronauts home next year on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission

NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced today that US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will return next February with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission after spending more than 80 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS),

The two astronauts were originally scheduled to spend just eight days aboard the ISS following a successful launch of Boeing’s Starliner on June 5th before parachuting back to Earth aboard the same spacecraft. Those plans changed after thruster failures, helium leaks, and valve issues plagued the already long-delayed Starliner while it was docking with the ISS.

With limited access to the spacecraft docked with the ISS, tests at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility indicated that deformed Teflon seals may…

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