The US space agency ended months of speculation about the next flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, confirming on Monday that the vehicle will only carry cargo to the International Space Station.
NASA and Boeing are now aiming to fly the uncrewed Starliner-1 mission no later than April 2026, the space agency said. Launching by next April will require completing rigorous testing, certification and mission preparation activities, NASA said in a statement.
“NASA and Boeing are rigorously testing the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement.
Crew mission reduction
NASA also said it has reached an agreement with Boeing to modify the Commercial Crew contract signed in 2014, which called for six crewed flights to the space station after certification of the spacecraft. The plan now is to fly Starliner-1 carrying cargo, and then fly three additional missions before the space station is retired.
“This modification allows NASA and Boeing to focus on safely certifying the system in 2026, executing Starliner’s first crew rotation when ready, and aligning our ongoing flight planning for future Starliner missions based on the station’s operational requirements through 2030,” Stich said.
SpaceX and Boeing were both awarded contracts in 2014 to develop crewed spacecraft and fly six operational missions to the space station. SpaceX conducted a successful crewed test flight with its Crew Dragon vehicle in mid-2020 and had its first operational mission before the end of that year. Most recently, the Crew-11 mission was launched in August, with Crew-12 currently scheduled for February 15.
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