NASA Pursues Uncrewed and Crewed Missions with Boeing's Starliner

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will attempt to fly NASA astronauts to space again, this time following an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the capsule is scheduled for an uncrewed mission as early as December. This represents a step back for the initiative, which has faced significant challenges.

Starliner's last flight was its problematic 2024 crewed mission. The spacecraft, named Calypso, took astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS. However, the planned eight-day stay extended to 286 days due to helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, raising safety concerns. These issues prevented Wilmore and Williams from returning to Earth on Calypso. They eventually returned in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

A February report from NASA identified multiple failures behind the botched mission. Problems spanned the ship's design and engineering, particularly its thrusters. The report concluded that a primary cause was insufficient NASA oversight of Boeing, a lack of transparent data sharing, and poor decision-making.

Following the Calypso incident, Starliner's design has undergone several changes, including modifications to seals and the thruster system. These updates will be tested during the upcoming uncrewed mission. Data collected will "validate the recent remediation efforts," according to Nelson. If this test proves successful, a Starliner vehicle could undertake a crewed mission in 2028, with NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg in command.

"He's an absolutely brilliant guy who's helping on a lot of our ignition priorities, and I am confident his experience will serve this mission incredibly well," Nelson said of Hoburg.

A significant change involves the launch vehicle. Starliner previously used United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) Atlas V rocket, which is no longer in production. NASA now plans to utilize ULA's Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift rocket for future Starliner missions.

NASA is keen for Starliner to become operational. Nelson and other NASA officials emphasized that SpaceX's Crew Dragon is currently the only available operational crew capsule for transporting NASA astronauts to and from orbit. SpaceX has indicated plans to transition away from the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon in favor of developing its Starship megarockets. NASA views having redundancy and more options for crewed missions as crucial for a robust space economy.

Nelson stressed that, at present, no other providers are being considered for ISS mission capsules, and SpaceX and Boeing will remain the sole options for the foreseeable future.

"One of them is serving our needs very well," Nelson stated. "The other one we’ve been committed to getting operational.”