What’s Next for Boeing’s Starliner?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Crew-9 prior to departing the ISS earlier this week. Top left, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, followed by bottom left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut Nick Hague. (NASA)

With the first Boeing Starliner crew now back on Earth after an extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS), it is time to ask whether there will be a third Starliner attempt.

According to Reuters, NASA is currently considering a third uncrewed attempt. Steve Stich, chief of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, stated the following yesterday:

We’re … looking at some options for Starliner, should we need to, of flying it uncrewed…When we look forward, what we’d like to do is that one flight, and then get into a crew rotation flight.

That sounds like a safe bet to convince everyone that the Starliner is ready, even though it did return to Earth safely while the crew remained on the ISS.

Boeing has both the ISS and future space missions to consider. Walking away now would abandon the field to SpaceX just as private sector space stations are the hot topic.

Regardless of all the chaos on Earth right now regarding the future of NASA, it is still a safe bet that the U.S. will continue to build a space industry in need of reliable partners to bring cargo and crew into Low Earth Orbit and beyond.