Boeing Starliner

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a class of reusable crew capsules expected to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth orbit destinations. It is manufactured by Boeing for its participation in NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The Starliner, which is supposed to carry more than 400 pounds of NASA cargo and crew supplies, will take roughly 24 hours to reach the ISS, after which it will dock there.

The Boeing Starliner holds a crew of up to seven people and is designed to be able to remain in orbit for up to seven months with the reusability of up to ten missions. It is also compatible with multiple launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9, as well as the planned Vulcan Centaur. Unlike earlier United States space capsules, Starliner will make airbag-cushioned landings on the ground rather than into water. Five landing areas are planned in the Western United States, which will give the Starliner about 450 landing opportunities every year.

On 16 September 2014, NASA chose Boeing (Starliner) and SpaceX (Crew Dragon) as the two companies that will be funded to develop systems to transport US government crews to and from the International Space Station. Boeing was rewarded contracts for development by NASA in 2010 and 2011. In May 2016, Boeing delayed its first scheduled Starliner launch from 2017 to early 2018. Then in October 2016, Boeing delayed its program by six months, from early 2018 to late 2018, following supplier holdups and a production problem on the Spacecraft 2. By 2016, they were hoping to fly NASA astronauts to the ISS by December 2018 which unfortunately did not happen.

On 20 December 2019, the Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test (uncrewed test flight) was launched with the Atlas V N22, from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the test, the Starliner experienced a timing anomaly that precluded docking with the International Space Station. On 22 December 2019, two days after the launch, the Boeing Starliner Calypso became the first space capsule intended to be crew capable to make a land-based touchdown in the United States. On Tuesday, 3rd August 2020, just two and a half hours before its launch, the company tweeted it was scrubbing the flight after the detection of tissue in the capsules propulsion system.

The launch was then rescheduled to Wednesday but was again postponed after engineers detected “unexpected valve position indications” in the propulsion system. The mission was to perform an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station, Tuesday at 1720 UTC from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was a five-day mission, during which Starliner was expected to dock with the ISS, then undock, and land safely back on earth. It was to carry 270kg worth of supplies and test equipment, and pins of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic poster of women who worked in factories during wars, as well as flags from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“We’re disappointed with today’s outcome and the need to reschedule our Starliner launch,” said John Vollmer, vice president and programme manager, Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, in the statement. “Human spaceflight is a complex, precise and unforgiving endeavour, and Boeing and NASA teams will take the time they need to ensure the safety and integrity of the spacecraft and the achievement of our mission objectives.”

When this test flight takes off, it will check the capabilities of the spacecraft from launch, docking, atmospheric re-entry and a landing at a desert in the US. Spaceflight will also help NASA to ascertain and certify the transportation system to carry astronauts to and from the space station in the future.

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