Boeing’s troubled capsule won’t carry astronauts on next space station flight

Boeing's Starliner capsule, atop an Atlas V rocket, is rolled out to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing and NASA have agreed to keep astronauts off the company’s next Starliner flight and instead perform a trial run with cargo to prove its safety.

Monday’s announcement comes eight months after the first and only Starliner crew returned to Earth aboard SpaceX after a prolonged mission. Although NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams managed to dock Starliner to the International Space Station in 2024, the capsule had so many problems that NASA ordered it to come back empty, leaving the astronauts stuck there for more than nine months.

Engineers have since been poring over the thruster and other issues that plagued the Starliner capsule. Its next cargo run to the space station will occur no earlier than April, pending additional tests and certification.

Boeing said in a statement that it remains committed to the Starliner program with safety the highest priority.

NASA is also slashing the planned number of Starliner flights, from six to four. If the cargo mission goes well, then that will leave the remaining three Starliner flights for crew exchanges before the space station is decommissioned in 2030.

“NASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 - three years after the final space shuttle flight - to ferry astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost. The Boeing contract was worth US$4.2 billion and SpaceX’s $2.6 billion.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its first astronaut mission for NASA in 2020. Its 12th crew liftoff for NASA was this summer.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press