'Massive Effort to Block SpaceX': Elon Musk as NASA Delays Sunita Williams' Return

Chicago: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has made an allegation against NASA following the announcement that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth only in 2025.

Boeing's space mission involving its Starliner spacecraft has encountered more controversy, with the recent announcement that the mission's two astronauts will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX spacecraft in February next year. The two astronauts are currently at the International Space Station. The mission, originally planned to last eight days, could now extend beyond eight months.

Responding to a post about the Boeing mission, Musk alleged, "Hardly anyone knows that there was a massive effort to block SpaceX from providing astronaut transport for NASA."

The post to which Musk responded read, "Boeing was paid billions more than SpaceX to be seven years late on a mission it could not complete . . . And will now be rescued from total disaster by SpaceX. Never forget, many bureaucrats wanted to sole source all of this to Boeing."

SpaceX is one of the largest private entities in the global space exploration sector, competing with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, and Boeing. SpaceX is known for its significant contributions to the sector, including launching the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket.

NASA to keep 2 astronauts in space until February

NASA confirmed the developments in a post on X, stating, "After extensive review by experts across the agency, NASA's @BoeingSpace Crew Flight Test will return with an uncrewed #Starliner. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are scheduled to return to Earth next spring aboard."

On Saturday, NASA decided it’s too risky to bring the two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they'll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.

The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the flight back.

After almost three months, the decision finally came down from NASA’s highest ranks on Saturday. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come back in a SpaceX capsule in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot with a touchdown in the New Mexico desert.

Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, are both retired Navy captains with previous long-duration spaceflight experience. Before their June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Wilmore and Williams said their families bought into the uncertainty and stress of their professional careers decades ago.