New Delhi: Last month, the uncrewed Boeing Starliner successfully landed at NASA’s White Sands test facility after undocking from the International Space Station. The flight was nominal, but NASA did not have enough confidence in the spaceship to risk returning its pilot and commander, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore. NASA wants another commercial provider to the International Space Station apart from SpaceX for the sake of redundancy, and Boeing Starliner was moving towards certification for such flights. However, the spacecraft encountered hardware trouble on its first Crew Flight Test, disrupting the plans for certification, as well as the future schedule.
Now a new route towards certification will have to be charted out. Boeing conducted extensive ground and space based testing of the hardware to identify the root problems well enough to fix them permanently. The learnings from the mission will be used in determining the best path to certification, and starting regular operations with the Boeing Starliner. NASA has now clarified the way forward, with a statement, “NASA is keeping options on the table for how best to achieve system certification, including windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025.”
NASA’s commercial crew programme for 2025
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will now be returning in February 2025 as part of the Crew-9 mission, after the Crew-10 mission reaches the International Space Station. NASA has now announced the members of the Crew-10 mission, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. There will be a second crew rotation in 2025 itself, with the Crew-11 mission. The members of the Crew-11 mission will be announced at a later date. NASA intends to have redundant providers for access to the International Space Station, and is encouraging competition to nurture innovation and stimulating long-term cost reduction in access to Earth Orbit.
