Starlineer’s unsuccessful Test flight left a crew trapped in space, and Boeing’s spacecraft is still not ready to fly. In an update recently, NASA officials said that they are working towards launching a mission on Starlineer in 2026, and possibly no astronauts will be involved in it.
During a press briefing last week, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stitch told reporters that Boeing are making several changes in their Starlineer spacecraft to maintain their thrusters to keep their thrusters from ARS Technica. InformedEarlier this year, NASA revealed that she wanted to launch another Test flight for Starlineer for some time in 2025, but maybe the timeline was transferred as the agency continued to work with Boeing to resolve issues that could be resolved that affect their first crew tests for the International Space Station (ISS).
It is difficult to believe that NASA is still discussing after a change in the Starlineer spacecraft The program faced many obstacles from the beginningHowever, the agency has been prescribed for the second commercial taxi carrying its crew to the space station. In 2014, NASA honored Boeing and SpaceX contracts as part of its commercial crew program to develop a spacecraft capable of carrying crews and cargo to ISS. Unlike SpaceX, Boeing struggled to prove his spacecraft that he could work.
Later delays and at least two-to-diarrheal flights to ISS, Starlineer NASA astronauts Buch Wilmor and Sunni Williams launched At the space station on 5 June 2024. Five of the thrusters of the spacecraft failed, And it developed Five helium leaksOne of which was identified before the lift. NASA Spacecraft was disqualified to take astronauts back home And returned its crew SpaceX’s dragon on board on board instead. On September 6, 2024, Boeing’s Starlineer ignored ISS and returned to Earth Without a crew on board.
March, in the final update shared in NASA Announced This was “progressing towards the crew certification of the company’s CST -100 Starlineer System.” The space agency stated that: “Joint teams are working to resolve in-flight discrepancies of Starlineer and prepare for propulsion system testing in the next months, as NASA plans for NASA’s next flight.”
NASA hoped that Starlineer would start its first operating mission by the beginning of 2025, but the agency is still working on a change in spacecraft to avoid another malfunction. Stitch recently said during briefing, “We are actually working with Starlineer to a flight early next year, and then finally, our goal is to join the crew rotation flights with Starlineer.” “And they will not start before the second crew rotation slot at the end of next year.”
Instead of using Starlineer, NASA was forced to move to SpaceX to launch its crew -10 mission in March and has booked the company’s dragon spacecraft for the launch of crew -11 in July. There will probably be a delay in delay in the authentication of Boeing to launch astronauts at the space station at the space station.
ISS is due to retiring by 2030, leaving very little space for Boeing to complete its end $ 4.3 billion Commercial team program Contract with NASA. The agency may still find an use for Starlineer, as it plans to join with commercial space stations, which has become a customer of private enterprises set to launch in low Earth orbit. One thing is certain: NASA will really like two commercial institutions to its astronauts instead of being completely dependent on SpaceX instead of flying in space.
