Starliner astronauts join NASA's Crew-9: will return on SpaceX Dragon As for Williams and Wilmore, they will be joining the Crew-9 expedition − which created another issue. NASA had to cut two crew members from the original Crew-9 team as the Dragon is equipped to fly four astronauts for NASA. According to NASA, those two crew members who will fly to the space station as part of Crew-9 are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their launch is scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 24. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, who had originally been part of the Crew-9 mission, will instead be assigned to a future flight. In February, Williams and Wilmore will return on the SpaceX Dragon with Hague and Gorbunov, who are bringing a SpaceX suit for Wilmore. According to NASA, there is already a spare SpaceX suit onboard which fits Williams. The Starliner suits, which are not compatible with the Dragon, will return in the uncrewed Starliner. NASA makes the decision to return Starliner uncrewed NASA has stated repeatedly that this was not an easy decision to return Starliner uncrewed, as there is needed redundancy in the commercial crew program. While NASA currently partners with SpaceX to fly astronauts on Dragon, the agency wants a backup option, too. Meanwhile, according to NASA officials during the undocking news briefing Wednesday, Boeing was confident in the ability of their Starliner spacecraft, and this led to slight tension in the meetings. "It was a tough decision to make," said Steve Stitch, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "The teams were very split. (There was) uncertainty relative to the thrusters. The NASA team chose to return Butch and Suni on Dragon." With multiple tragedies in the past, NASA officials said they could not accept any uncertainty with the nature of the malfunctioning Starliner thrusters. It was problems with the thrusters that led to Starliner being docked to the space station for so long. The decision to not fly crew back on Starliner was a major blow to Boeing and a setback to NASA's plans. Boeing received a fixed contract for $4.82 billion in 2014 to develop Starliner and fly NASA astronauts. Meanwhile SpaceX received a contract for $3.14 billion, and has successfully flown eight NASA missions and multiple private crews with their Dragon spacecraft. While the contract with Boeing is fixed, all additional testing will be on Boeing's dime. But for NASA, it means they will have to remain dependent solely on SpaceX for now. What was the problem with Starliner's thrusters? So far, NASA and Boeing teams have narrowed down the cause of the thruster malfunction − which was seen when the thrusters shut off during docking to the space station on June 6 − to overheating. This could be caused by the swelling of a Teflon poppet or the trapping of heat in sections of the spacecraft's service module referred to as doghouses. NASA has stated that there is no immediate threat upon undocking, as the overheating is speculated to occur on long duration burns − such as when the thrusters malfunctioned during the hold approaching the space station. The only concern is the burn which happens before reentry. Should the thrusters malfunction at the wrong time, Starliner could land off target − or worse − burn up in the atmosphere or even skip off and into space. The problem now is the fact that the service module, which contains those thrusters, is located underneath Starliner and jettisoned off upon reentry into the atmosphere. Since it is disposed of and burns up, NASA and Boeing will not have it to study. So the analysis all comes down to data and recreating the problem on the ground − which can be extremely difficult as the conditions in orbit are unique. Starliner also saw multiple helium leaks after launching, another issue that teams will need to solve. There is currently no public information on the possible cause. Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.