Boeing’s Starliner May Be Prepared for Human-Crewed Missions by March 2021

Boeing has faced significant challenges in its Starliner program, experiencing ongoing technical setbacks that have hindered progress. Nevertheless, the company expressed optimism during a press conference on Monday, stating that it anticipates resolving these issues by March of next year. Boeing aims to conduct tests of its reusable crew capsule, with NASA astronauts on board, once the problems are resolved.

“Based on current plans, we expect to have the spacecraft ready in early March. That doesn’t mean we have an early March launch date,” Boeing vice president and Starliner director Mark Nappi emphasized during the event, according to CNBC. “We’re now working with NASA — the Commercial Crew program and [the International Space Station] — and ULA on possible launch dates based on our readiness … we’ll work over the next few weeks and see what we can fit in. then we’ll set a launch date.”

The Starliner has been in development for nearly fifteen years now and was first announced in 2010. It is Boeing’s entry into the reusable crew capsule race currently dominated by SpaceX with its Dragon 2 planes.

Both companies were awarded grants at the same time in 2014 to develop systems capable of carrying astronauts to the ISS by the contract deadline of 2017. By 2016, Boeing’s first planned launch had already been pushed back from 2017 to late 2018. By April 2018, NASA scaled back its launch expectations for 2019–2020.

The first unmanned orbital test flight in late 2019 failed to reach orbit, further delaying the project. However, NASA agreed to pay for another unmanned test in August 2021. This test never made it to the launch pad due to a “valve problem”. Fixing the problem took until the following May, when the follow-up test flight was successfully completed.

Two subsequent flight preparation attempts by the crew were unsuccessful. The planned flight on July 21 was cleared when faults were found in both the parachute system and wiring harnesses. That brings us to March, when Boeing is confident its Starliner will successfully carry a pair of NASA astronauts to the ISS for a week. To date, Boeing is estimated to have incurred project cost overruns of approximately $1.5 billion.