Elon Musk¡¯s SpaceX will use one of its capsules to bring home astronauts stuck at the International Space Station next year, in a fresh setback for rival Boeing that also raises questions about how NASA will staff the orbiting lab moving forward.
Boeing¡¯s flawed Starliner craft will return without people on board in early September, the U.S. space agency said during a Saturday news conference announcing its decision.
The contingency plan means that NASA astronauts Barry ¡°Butch¡± Wilmore and Sunita ¡°Suni¡± Williams will hitch a ride home on SpaceX¡¯s rival Crew Dragon capsule during a six-month mission, called Crew-9, slated to launch in late September. That would put them back on U.S. soil in February ¡ª months later than they had planned to come home.
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