Nasa said on Saturday that it would use a spacecraft from billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX rather than Boeing to bring home two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station.
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who were supposed to return to Earth two months ago, will now come back in February aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon rather than the Boeing CST-100 Starliner they travelled to the space station with that subsequently suffered technical difficulties.
“Space flight is risky,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson. “A test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine, and so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety.”