Boeing Starliner Not Safe Enough to Return Astronauts, NASA Says

After months of uncertainty over whether Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft could safely return its two astronauts home from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA decided on Aug. 24 to send the Starliner back to Earth uncrewed. The two astronauts, Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, will return on SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon vessel in February 2025. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters during a press conference on Saturday that the joint decision between Boeing and NASA was made in the context of “mistakes done in the past” when Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia were lost, killing all crew on board. “Space flight is risky, even at its safest, and even at its most routine. And a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine,” Nelson said....