NASA Revives Troubled Boeing Starliner Spacecraft with New Test Flight

NASA is reviving its Boeing Starliner spacecraft after a troubled maiden crewed voyage left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for nearly nine months.

The uncrewed test flight, set to take place as early as December, will aim to validate recent design changes and engineering fixes made in response to safety concerns raised by the 2024 mission. The spacecraft, named Calypso, was supposed to carry astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS for an eight-day stay but a helium leak and malfunctioning thrusters forced NASA to scrub the return trip.

The report into the failed mission highlighted lax oversight by NASA, poor decision-making, and a lack of data transparency as major contributing factors. Boeing has since made several alterations to Starliner's design, including changes to seal designs and the thruster system, which will be put through their paces during the upcoming uncrewed mission.

If the test flight is successful, NASA plans to use the Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift rocket for future Starliner missions. The agency's administrator, Jared Isaacman, emphasized the importance of having redundancy and options available for crewed missions, citing SpaceX's Crew Dragon as the only other operational crew capsule currently available.