Greater than half a yr after an empty Starliner spacecraft safely landed in a New Mexico desert, NASA and Boeing nonetheless haven’t determined whether or not the automobile’s subsequent flight will carry any astronauts.
In an replace this week, the US area company mentioned it’s nonetheless working via the method to certify Starliner for human missions. Whether or not it carries cargo or people, Starliner’s subsequent flight is not going to happen till late this yr or, extra seemingly, someday in 2026.
Two issues stand out within the new data offered by NASA. First, there stays a number of work left to do that yr earlier than Starliner will fly once more, together with intensive testing of the automobile’s propulsion system. And secondly, it’s turning into clear that Starliner will solely ever fly a handful of missions to the area station, if that, earlier than the orbiting laboratory is retired.
Lengthy line of assessments
A number of points marred Starliner’s first crew flight to the area station final June, however probably the most severe of those was the failure of a number of maneuvering thrusters. Issues about these thrusters prompted NASA to fly Starliner’s crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, dwelling on a Crew Dragon automobile as a substitute. They safely landed earlier this month.
Starliner returned autonomously in early September. Since then, NASA and Boeing have been reviewing information from the check flight. (Sadly, the errant thrusters had been situated on the service module of the spacecraft, which is jettisoned earlier than reentry and was not recovered.)
Though engineers from NASA and Boeing have labored via greater than 70 p.c of the observations and anomalies that occurred throughout Starliner’s flight, the propulsion system points stay unresolved.
