NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says bringing astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth on faulty Starliner is too risky.

Two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in June aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule will return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA chief Bill Nelson has said.

He told reporters on Saturday that issues with Starliner’s propulsion system are too risky to carry its first crew home.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to ride Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the ISS for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission.

But Starliner’s propulsion system suffered a series of glitches beginning in the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, triggering months of cascading delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed and it sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurise the thrusters.

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