NASA Picks SpaceX for 2025 Space Missions, Boeing's Starliner Still Grounded

NASA has chosen SpaceX's Crew Dragon for its crew rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025. Crew Dragon will fly NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on the Crew-10 mission in February 2025. The Crew-11 mission, scheduled for July 2025, doesn't have a crew announcement yet.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft was initially planned to fly these missions. However, problems during the Crew Flight Test mission in June led NASA to delay Starliner's certification. NASA now thinks Starliner might need another test flight but hasn't decided yet. They are reviewing the data from the Crew Flight Test mission, including issues like thruster problems and helium leaks. NASA and Roscosmos are also discussing seat exchange for future missions. Currently, Jonny Kim is the only NASA astronaut set for a Soyuz mission in March 2025. Roscosmos plans to use only their cosmonauts for the next two Soyuz missions. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expects the seat barter agreement to be extended.

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