NASA reassigns astronauts from delayed Boeing Starliner to SpaceX

NASA has moved a pair of astronauts from Boeing’s first two crewed missions to a SpaceX mission next year, in a rare reassignment as the aerospace giant’s Starliner capsule remains behind in development.

The U.S. space agency announced on Wednesday that astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will be the commander and pilot of SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission, respectively, in the fall of 2022.

In August 2018, NASA had tasked the couple to fly on Boeing’s first crewed Starliner missions – with Mann on the Starliner crew flight test and Cassada on the first operational Starliner flight. But after spending three years preparing to fly the Boeing capsule, the two astronauts are the first to be reassigned from one American spacecraft to another.

“We understand the agency’s need to make adjustments so that members of the current astronaut-class flight experience on an operational vehicle while development of the Starliner spacecraft continues. We fully support the decisions of NASA and remain committed to putting the safety of the astronauts who will fly on our vehicle first, “a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

NASA still has three astronauts assigned to Boeing’s Starliner crewed flight test: Butch Wilmore, Mike Fincke and Suni Williams. The agency said it would do other assignments on Boeing missions “in the future”.

Ars Technica first reported that Mann and Cassada were likely to leave Starliner.

Boeing had planned to fly the Starliner capsule on the OFT-2 unmanned mission in August, but issues with a number of the spacecraft’s propulsion valves delayed the test flight – representing a resumption of testing in Boeing unmanned flight in December 2019.

The original flight test was cut short when the spacecraft’s flight control system missed the shot and the capsule did not reach the International Space Station as expected.

The delayed OFT-2 mission does not yet have a new target launch date, as Boeing is working with supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne to address the valve issues.

Boeing is covering the cost of OFT-2, having set aside $ 410 million shortly after the first flight test. The company developed Starliner as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, after winning nearly $ 5 billion in contracts to build the capsule. SpaceX received around $ 3.1 billion to develop its Crew Dragon capsule under the same NASA program, and launched its first astronauts in May 2020.