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NASA has announced that it will use SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck in space for months, in a new setback for aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

The agency said it has no confidence in Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule, which will return to Earth unmanned and bring the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, home in February 2025.

Williams and Wilmore will remain on the International Space Station until then. They have been there since early June.

The decision was the result of “a commitment to safety,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “Our core value is safety, and it’s our North Star,” he told reporters Saturday.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return next February with a crew of nine, and that Starliner will return unmanned,” Nelson said.

“I want you to know that Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the data needed to make this decision. We want to better understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner becomes an important part of ensuring our crew access to the ISS.

Nelson said he had spoken with Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who said the company would continue to fix the problems once the Starliner was back.

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine,” Nelson added. “And a test flight is by its very nature neither safe nor routine, so the decision to keep Butch and Sonny aboard the International Space Station and to bring the Boeing Starliner home unmanned is the result of a commitment to safety.

“Our core value is safety, and it is our North Star. And I am grateful to NASA and Boeing for their teams, for all the incredible and detailed work to get to this decision.”

Since 2020, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been flying crews to the ISS.

Instead of launching a full crew of four, SpaceX will only take two when Dragon launches to the space station in late September. That crew, which would include Williams and Wilmore, would return in February 2025.

Boeing previously maintained it stood by the Starliner, which experienced mechanical problems while docking with the ISS on June 6 for what was to have been an eight-day mission.

The June flight marked the first manned mission to the ISS using the Starliner, a flagship spacecraft for the aerospace giant that aims to compete with SpaceX for NASA contracts.