Why NASA chose Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore back to Earth?

NASA has announced that astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024, will return to Earth in February 2025. 

The US space agency also said that the Boeing Starliner capsule will return from the International Space Station without Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. They have chosen Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring the astronauts back from space next year.

Eighty days ago, the two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station, aboard Boeing's Starliner for a mission predicted to last for eight days. However, they found themselves somewhat stranded, extending their station stay due to major technical issues with their Boeing capsule.

The astronauts are now scheduled to return on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will launch next month as a part of a routine astronaut rotation mission.

As per reports, NASA chief Bill Nelson said Starliner's propulsion system is too risky to bring its first crew back to Earth. Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew and attempt to return to Earth as it would have with astronauts aboard.

NASA’s decision to pick Boeing's top space rival marked a big setback to the Starliner test mission. Boeing had hoped for a comeback instilling credibility in their Starliner test mission, but the unfortunate turn of events saw the US space agency leaning toward their leading rival in space exploration. This just added to the string of hurdles for the mission. Since 2016, the program has continually grappled with various development complications and an overblown budget exceeding $1.6 billion.

The SpaceX Crew-9 mission is set to launch in late September but will carry only two passengers instead of the originally planned four.

The plan is for it to remain docked at the ISS until its return in February. During this launch, it will be responsible for bringing back all of its crew members, along with the two stranded astronauts, safely to Earth.

The veteran NASA astronauts, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to travel aboard Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the ISS.

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