The future of Starliner, the ship with “abandoned” crew for months on the ISS, is in the balance for technical problems. NASA refers to 2026.
On June 6, 2024 the spacecraft CST – 100 Boeing Starliner, with NASA astronauts on board Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, attracted to the International Space Station (ISS), giving way to the long -awaited Crew flight test (CFT). It was the second spacecraft for human transport made by aprivate company to reach the ISS. A year later, the program slowed down by technical problems that led NASA to postpone the second flight to the beginning of 2026.
Crew yes or not? NASA has not confirmed the presence of a crew on the next flight, on the contrary it explicitly hoped for a “non crewed” flight, that is without crewas an intermediate step, calling it “the most logical choice”. In the meantime, Steve Stich, head of NASA’s commercial crew program, confirmed that the tests on the ground, in particular at the White Sands website, will continue for Check the engines and thermal barriers.
The astronauts blocked. The 8–10 day CFT flight has degenerated in a stay of almost 286 days on board of the ISS, after technical problems – including Elio losses and malfunctions in the RCS engineers – who made the return on board Starliner insecure. The capsule then completed the unmanned mission independently, landing at the White Sands Space Harbor on September 7, 2024. Williams and Wilmore they returned with the Spacex Crew – 9 March 18, 2025.
During this long period, the two astronauts they carried out extraveicular activities And both then expressed their will to fly again on Starliner.
The next steps. In the months following the landing, NASA and Boeing analyzed over 70 % of the flight anomalies and planned the switching campaigns of the engines and the ground tests on the RCS engines and the thermal management system. The goal is ensure that the RCS and internal barriers resist thermal stress and repeated ignitions.
Not only that: evaluations on alternative gaskets for Prevent Elio losses. Despite the progress, however, the possibility of an additional flight without crew as a last step before the definitive green light is being examined.
Starliner -11: Uncertain crew. The formation of the crew for the Starliner -1 operating mission also remains pending. Finke and Kutryk had been announced for the mission, with Kimiya Yui (Jaxa) possible third member; But in March 2025 Finke and Yui were reassigned to the Spacex Crew – 11 mission. NASA has declared that new assignments will be announced according to the skills and needs of each agency.
The first operating flight Starliner -1, scheduled with four members on board for a mission of approx 180 daysit will not take place before early 2026 and will be launched on Atlas V N22 rocket.
Challenge to Spacex. Behind Starliner’s delays, in addition to the technical problems, internal voltages also emerge in Boeing: according to the Financial Timesthe spatial division would be more oriented to the financial returns than to the engineering quality, causing losses for over 2 billion dollars and a drop in trust in production. Now Starliner “must absolutely fly if Boeing does not want to be definitively” defeated “by Spacex who reaps continuous successes with his Dragon spacecraft.
