Boeing’s first astronaut mission concluded last week with a mission failure. Two pilots are still in space, scheduled to remain aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until next year. A combination of poor design and inadequate quality assurance has made their return too risky for NASA’s taste, stranding them without the possibility of an easy return. Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which was supposed to ferry astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth after a brief week-long test flight, instead left them marooned on the International Space Station due to a series of thruster failures and helium leaks.
The mission launched in early June, and has been nothing short of nightmarish. What should have been a demonstration of Boeing’s crew capsule became a months-long debate over whether the spacecraft was safe enough to bring the astronauts home, resulting in NASA overruling Boeing’s argument that the system had been extensively tested.
The result is a major setback for Boeing, which has recently been plagued by delays in other plans, ballooning costs, and technical challenges. Many had hoped this crewed mission would revitalize the Starliner program and prove its capability to compete with SpaceX in the commercial crew market, but with this failure, that may be in doubt. However, NASA still claims to have faith in Boeing, and it seems the company remains interested in being a major player in this part of the aerospace industry.
As a result of these safety concerns, NASA has arranged for the stranded astronauts to return on a SpaceX capsule in February 2025, extending their originally planned week-long mission to over eight months. This unexpected extension of their stay on the ISS has forced NASA to adjust crew rotations and mission plans.
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