NASA Explores New Missions With Boeing’s Troubled Starliner Spacecraft
Vehicle hasn’t flown since failures left two astronauts stuck on International Space Station for months
- Boeing and NASA are in talks about using the Starliner vehicle to handle 10 or more new missions to low-Earth orbit.
- The discussions follow a 2024 Starliner test flight that was marred by failed thrusters and other performance problems.
- NASA is analyzing its options for crew flights to the space station partly because SpaceX is starting to sunset its Dragon vehicles.
Boeing and NASA are in talks about using the company’s Starliner vehicle to handle a big batch of new missions, a turnaround for a ship that posed risks to crew members on a 2024 flight to the International Space Station.
The aerospace giant and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have discussed having Starliner handle 10 or more new flights in the years ahead, people familiar with the discussions said.
Those missions would help ensure the U.S. can get to low-Earth orbit, home to the space station.
“NASA is developing plans to meet our nation’s objectives for a sustained presence in low-Earth orbit” and expects to release details soon, an agency spokesman said. A Boeing spokesman said the company is committed to NASA’s efforts and looks forward to launching the next Starliner mission.
NASA tapped Starliner years ago to handle up to six missions. In the summer of 2024, a Starliner test flight delivered NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the ISS. But the operation was marred by performance problems, including failed thrusters, that posed safety risks to the crew.
NASA officials decided to keep Wilmore and Williams on the station and return them to Earth on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, rather than have them come back on Starliner. They ended up on the research lab for about nine months—far longer than the roughly weeklong visit NASA and Boeing had planned. Starliner hasn’t flown since it returned to Earth empty in September 2024.
The Starliner flight was marked by technical problems, poor communication and management failures, according to a report NASA released earlier this year.
The space agency has been trying to figure out how it will be able to keep conducting crew flights to the station and fly to future private stations U.S. companies are developing. It is analyzing its options partly because SpaceX is starting to sunset its Dragon vehicles.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon variant has been the only certified vehicle to carry NASA astronauts to the space station from the U.S. The Elon Musk-led company has stopped making new Dragon ships, but hasn’t publicly specified when it plans to stop operating the ship.
“We’re not retiring it today,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell recently said of Dragon. The company, which is shifting focus to its Starship rocket and spacecraft, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, NASA said it awarded SpaceX three additional astronaut missions to the space station using Crew Dragon. Those flights are in addition to two launches the company has under contract, and are worth an average of $315 million each.
There are few other vehicles flying to low-Earth orbit. Northrop Grumman has a cargo capsule that flies to the space station for NASA, but not a human-rated one. Russia flies vehicles to the ISS that handle crews and cargo.
Europe-based Exploration Co. is developing a cargo capsule called Nyx, as well as an astronaut variant of it for low-Earth orbit. Sierra Space has a plane-like vehicle called Dream Chaser that hasn’t flown to space yet, but said earlier this month it signed deals to transport national-security and commercial payloads on its inaugural mission.