NASA has modified its Commercial Crew contract with Boeing, dropping the order from six to four missions, of which one will be uncrewed.
The uncrewed mission, Starliner-1, will be used for in-flight validation of the upgrades made to Boeing’s Calamity Capsule following the disastrous test flight in 2024 that left the crew, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, with an unexpectedly long stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA engineers had deemed the vehicle unsafe to return the astronauts to Earth.
Starliner-1 will not launch before April 2026. Assuming all goes well, the capsule will fly up to three crew rotations to the ISS. Managers hope to squeeze one of those missions into next year.
The original contract was awarded in 2014. At least two and up to six crewed missions were initially offered. Boeing’s price was $4.2 billion. The other successful bidder, SpaceX, came in at $2.6 billion.
At the time, the goal was to end US reliance on Russia in 2017. Only a few years had passed since the Space Shuttles were retired.
SpaceX conducted its first crewed demonstration flight in 2020 and has since reliably ferried astronauts to and from the ISS. Boeing has fared less well, finally getting a crewed test flight launched in 2024, only to have to return the capsule uncrewed.
It is more than a year since the uncrewed return of the Calamity Capsule, during which time speculation increased over the fate of Boeing’s Starliner program. The ISS has only a few years of life left before it is due to be deorbited, making the move to four Boeing flights inevitable. A bigger question was whether the company must repeat the crewed flight test before the vehicle is certified for use.
The answer is that the next flight will use the capsule for cargo rather than crew and will validate the upgrades made since the previous test flight. Three flights will remain in the contract, although NASA will have the option to add two more.
Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said: “NASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year.
“This modification allows NASA and Boeing to focus on safely certifying the system in 2026, execute Starliner’s first crew rotation when ready, and align our ongoing flight planning for future Starliner missions based on station’s operational needs through 2030.” ®