- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
Flawed Boeing mission to return to Earth with rival SpaceX
Two US astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA said Saturday, in a fresh public relations blow to the crisis-hit aviation giant.
The return of Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams has been delayed for weeks by thruster malfunctions of the Boeing spacecraft and NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced they will come back to Earth in February, while Starliner will return uncrewed.
"A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety," Nelson told reporters. "Our core value is safety."
A statement from NASA said the new approach would allow the space agency and Boeing to continue gathering data on Starliner when it flies home "while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew."
The development creates yet another headache for Boeing, as the two astronauts will have to spend a total of eight months in orbit, not the eight days as originally planned.
But Nelson seemed to go out of his way to say the space agency had not lost confidence in Boeing and planned to continue working with it so the space agency will have two vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS.
He said he was "100 percent sure Boeing will launch Starliner again with a crew on board."
In a statement, Boeing said it "continues to focus... on the safety of the crew and spacecraft" and is preparing Starliner "for a safe and successful uncrewed return."
- Return on hold -
After years of Starliner development delays, the spacecraft had finally lifted off in early June carrying the two veteran astronauts to the ISS.
But on June 6, as Starliner was approaching the space station, "NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters," the space agency said.
Amid intense efforts to diagnose the problem and try to craft a fix -- including tests both on the ground and in flight -- NASA had to put the astronauts' return on indefinite hold.
The big concern was that Starliner might not have the propulsive power to wrest itself out of orbit and begin the descent toward Earth.
NASA officials met before their announcement Saturday, finally agreeing on the highly unusual option of bringing the astronauts back from the flying laboratory not on their own craft, but aboard a previously scheduled SpaceX vehicle in February.
"It was just too much risk with the crew," said senior NASA official Steve Stich, with Norm Knight, another agency official adding that the astronauts "support the agency's decision fully, and they're ready to continue this mission on board ISS."
Under the new plan, the SpaceX Crew-9 mission will take off in late September, but carrying only two passengers instead of the originally planned four.
NASA and SpaceX are already working to reconfigure seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, "and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams," the space agency said.
Before the SpaceX launch, an uncrewed Starliner will first have to head back earthward, ensuring SpaceX will have a docking port on the ISS.
It will remain moored to the ISS until its scheduled return in February, bringing back its own crew members plus their two stranded colleagues.
- Boeing vs SpaceX -
The approach represents a further blow to the already tarnished image of US giant Boeing, whose airplane arm has been beset in recent years with concerns about safety and quality control.
Ten years ago, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA ordered new vessels from both Boeing and SpaceX that could ferry astronauts to and from the ISS.
With two such vehicles available, NASA reasoned, there would always be a backup in case one of the two experienced problems.
But Elon Musk's SpaceX beat Boeing to the punch and has been the lone vehicle used to taxi astronauts for the past four years.
This year's crewed Starliner flight, which followed years of delays and disappointments during the craft's development, was meant to be a last test of the vehicle before it enters regular operations.
NASA has said the astronauts on the ISS have plenty of supplies, are trained for extended stays and have plenty of experiments to conduct.
D.Sawyer--AMWN