CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA and Boeing provided an update on the company’s Starliner spacecraft on Monday. Leaders said they want additional crew missions and certification of a new rocket for crew transportation to low Earth orbit.
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“We are living through the most exciting era of space exploration since Apollo,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “As this domain continues to open, there will be growing demand for launch vehicles, transfer stages, landers, and, of course, spacecraft that carry astronauts. We have worked closely with Boeing to address the issues identified on previous Starliner flights, and we intend to see this vehicle return to flight in support of the International Space Station and future commercial destinations.”
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NASA said it will continue to plan for a fifth and sixth flight to and from the space station using Starliner, and will work with Boeing and United Launch Alliance to certify the Vulcan rocket for use after the Atlas V rocket’s final flight.
“We are starting with an uncrewed Starliner-1 mission to the International Space Station to validate the improvements made to the spacecraft and gather the flight data we need,” said Isaacman. “From there, we will use what we learn, continue implementing the corrective actions identified by our Program Investigation Team, and complete the testing and certification required for crewed flight. Our current plan is to return astronauts on Starliner-2 by 2028.”
Boeing’s Starliner capsule had many problems in 2024 that its two test pilots were stuck at the International Space Station for nearly a year. NASA later reclassified the botched mission as a crew-endangering “Type A mishap,” its most severe ranking.
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In February, NASA released findings from the agency’s Program Investigation Team detailing the programmatic and technical issues resulting in an uncrewed return of the Starliner during its first crewed flight in 2024, according to a press release from the agency.
The report revealed that Starliner’s service module reaction control thrusters were operating outside of their engineering parameters, which resulted in a loss of control experienced during its Crew Flight Test.
Based on the findings, Boeing has made thermal modifications to the spacecraft’s service module which NASA will evaluate for improved performance on Starliner-1.
“Starliner’s next flight is a critical step on the path to achieving full system certification and ensuring a sustained human presence in low Earth orbit,” said Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program. “With the safety of our space station crew and the public as our highest priority, we will test Starliner’s propulsion system through targeted demonstration objectives and disciplined operational controls.”
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The uncrewed Starliner-1 has the potential to fly in December of this year or January 2027. It will serve as an engineering evaluation mission to verify improved thermal environments, obtain necessary performance data for system qualification, and identify residual risk ahead of crewed missions.
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