Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner could return to space again soon, with hopes that it could be astronaut-ready after the Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this summer, according to Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
“We’re working hand in hand with Boeing as well on certification of Starliner, getting that vehicle back to flight,” he said on March 18.
His comments came during a post-splashdown press conference for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which included the crew of Boeing’s first and only manned test flight as of this article’s publication, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
He added that Boeing has closely monitored their astronauts’ return, even holding a watch party for the splashdown.
“You know, Butch and Suni’s return on Dragon, to me, shows how important it is to have two different crew transportation systems, the importance of Starliner and the redundancy that we’re building, and even space flight for our low Earth orbit economy,” Stich said.
Wilmore and Williams flew the Starliner to the International Space Station on June 5, 2024, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Their mission was supposed to last only eight days, but the capsule returned empty after authorities on the ground deemed it unsafe.
Issues that arose during their flight included the discovery of a continuing leak in the helium-based propulsion system that caused multiple thrusters to fail ahead of the Starliner’s scheduled docking with the ISS on June 6. That leak, which was later found to be caused by faulty rubber seals on the tanks, had already been discovered on the ground and caused a four-week launch delay.
Stich said that Boeing has continued to improve upon those systems at a testing facility in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, under its new CEO, Kelly Ortberg. Improvements specifically mentioned during the press conference included fixing the leaky fuel tanks and testing improvements to the capsule’s thrusters and additional thermal materials on the service module. New Boeing spacesuits are also in the works.
“We’re interested in their resilience,” Stich said of Boeing’s continued work on Starliner. “That whole Boeing team, like our whole Commercial Crew Program team, is resilient, and moving forward to the next steps on Starliner. It’s been a busy start to 2025. It’s hard to believe we’re in the middle or toward late March, [and we’re] looking for an exciting summer as well.”
The Starliner’s next flight will test all of the changes made to it over the past year. Stich said it was still unclear whether it would be crewed or uncrewed, but NASA wants the capsule capable of carrying a human crew either way. The subsequent flight would be crewed and see the Starliner joining SpaceX Crew Dragon in NASA’s crew rotation.
Stich did not rule out the possibility that the Starliner would be assigned to the ISS-bound Crew-12 mission, following the SpaceX-carried Crew-11 slated to launch in July or August. He said data evaluation and more testing are needed before any flight decisions could be made.
“We probably have a little bit more time as we get into the summer and understand that the testing we’re going to go do to make this decision,” he said, adding that other options, including an uncrewed flight, were also being considered.
As of March 19, no targeted launch date has been set for the Starliner’s return to space.
The Epoch Times reached out to Boeing for comment.
