When will Boeing’s Starliner fly astronauts again? NASA still doesn’t know

[Admin]

NASA is still unsure when it will next put astronauts on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which experienced issues during its first crewed test flight this summer.

When will Boeing’s Starliner fly astronauts again? NASA still doesn’t know : Read more

 

[Viking]

Let the CEO and Chief Designer make the next flight.

 

[ultimatewizz]

Let the CEO and Chief Designer make the next flight.

Like that idea, probably means the flight would never happen. My big question is are they going to change their system to match SpaceX on suits and hookup so they could help one another in the future if there is a problem. SpaceX has had a working system for 4 years and did it 2 billion dollars cheaper so I think Boeing needs to make the change.

 

[Mars Tafts]

Were there any issues with the uncrewed return flight? If they can't figure out a ground test that NASA will accept then there is going to have to be another uncrewed test flight but who will pay for it? The biggest problem that I see is that NASA is going to have to grow a pair before non-Spacex flights resume.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Boeing has apparently had some sort of capsule (+ service module) thruster problems on all of its StarLiner flights, so far. That does not bode well for NASA acceptance, even if there was no problem with this last return flight. Boeing needs to show that they have solved the problem, rather than NASA deciding to accept the risk that the consequences of the unsolved problem will be a major disaster at some point in a future mission.

Boeing is in big trouble on many fronts, even including a labor strike that forced the company to stop producing its most profitable product, which was already restricted in its production rate by the Federal Government to provide for Federal inspection oversight due to Boeings past failures to resolve its quality control issues.

The new Boeing CEO will have to decide whether it is worth the cost to fix the StarLiner to NASA's standards of reliability, or save the money but take the hit to their reputation, which needs some positives, not more negatives, at the moment.

And NASA may need to decide whether Boeing is "too big to let fail" so that it needs dollars of support even if the prospect of getting a useable product is unlikely. Congress may play a bigger role in that decision than NASA executives.