It was this time last year – June 5th to be exact – that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS). Hopes were high, but then things started to unravel.
So where do things stand now, particularly with the new concerns about SpaceX?
NASA is saying very little. A USA Today story from last week stated the newspaper was told that NASA
…is assessing the earliest potential for a Starliner flight to the International Space Station in early 2026.
Boeing is staying pretty quiet on its Starliner mission update website. It has not posted anything on this page since September 7, 2024.
NASA was a little more open about events back in March, posting that the crew certification of the Starliner system was still underway, and stating:
Our investment in commercial crew transportation capabilities is providing the needed flexibility to operate in space as safely as possible and respond to changes quickly when they arise. NASA is seeing the commitment from Boeing to adding the Starliner system to the nation’s crew transportation base.
We may need a few more statements from NASA addressing this “needed flexibility,” while also offering up alternatives to the SpaceX monopoly. That is, an alternative that does not include the Russians saving us, though it could come to that in an emergency.
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