Nevertheless, once astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally docked with the station, Boeing executives hailed the effort as a success. “We accomplished a lot, and really more than expected,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, during a post-docking news conference. “We just had an outstanding day.”
In the weeks that followed in the summer of 2024, NASA largely stood by Boeing, indicating that its primary plan remained returning the crew aboard Starliner.
By early August, however, NASA began to publicly hedge, acknowledging that Wilmore and Williams might instead come home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Boeing, for its part, stayed resolute. On a Boeing site titled “Starliner Updates” that has since been taken down, as late as August 2, 2024, the company was still asserting that its “confidence remains high” in Starliner’s crewed return (see archive).
In reality, it was far from outstanding
Then, on August 24, NASA made it official: Wilmore and Williams would not be flying home on Starliner. Instead, the pair would return aboard a Crew Dragon. Wilmore and Williams ultimately and safely returned to Earth in March 2025 as part of the Crew 9 mission.
The true peril the astronauts encountered on Starliner did not become public until after they landed and flew back to Houston. In an interview with Ars, Wilmore recounted the tense moments when he had to assume manual control as thrusters failed one after another.
Put simply, Wilmore no longer had full authority over Starliner. Abandoning the docking attempt outright was not an appealing option, though, because the thrusters used to manage attitude during docking were also required to orient Starliner for its deorbit burn and reentry. That left Wilmore weighing whether approaching the station or attempting to head back to Earth presented the lesser risk.
“I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point,” he said. “I don’t know if we can. And matter of fact, I’m thinking we probably can’t. So there we are, loss of 6DOF control, four aft thrusters down, and I’m visualizing orbital mechanics. The space station is nose down. So we’re not exactly level with the station, but below it. If you’re below the station, you’re moving faster. That’s orbital mechanics. It’s going to make you move away from the station. So I’m doing all of this in my mind. I don’t know what control I have. What if I lose another thruster? What if we lose comm? What am I going to do?”
Many observers have been stunned since Wilmore’s account became public that NASA, aware of these details, ever seriously considered returning the crew on Starliner.
