Boeing and NASA have agreed to keep astronauts off the company's next Starliner flight and instead perform a trial run with cargo to prove its safety.
Monday's announcement comes eight months after the first and only Starliner crew returned to Earth aboard SpaceX after a prolonged mission. Although NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams managed to dock Starliner to the International Space Station in 2024, the capsule had so many problems that NASA ordered it to come back empty, leaving the astronauts stuck there for more than nine months.
Engineers have since been poring over the thruster and other issues that plagued the Starliner capsule. Its next cargo run to the space station will occur no earlier than April, pending additional tests and certification.
Boeing said in a statement that it remains committed to the Starliner program with safety the highest priority.
Why don't they just cancel this blasted thing already? Boeing have time and time again demonstrated that they can't be trusted.
Probably don't want to be limited to only spacex to get up there
Sure. But that doesn't mean they should endlessly throw good money after bad.