Designed for researchers and adventurers alike

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a reusable crew capsule designed to transport crews to theInternational Space Station (ISS) and other private space stations. Starliner can accommodate up to seven passengers or a mix of crew and cargo. The spacecraft can be reused up to ten times.

Starliner is slightly larger than the Apollo command module with a diameter of 15 feet. It is designed to be compatible with the Atlas V, Delta IV,Falcon 9, and Vulcan Centaur launch vehicles.

In 2010, Boeing was awarded $18 million byNASA for the preliminary development of Starliner. In the following years, NASA would continue to award Boeing with more money as it continued its Commercial Crew Program. As part of that program, Starliner embarked on its maiden voyage, Starliner Orbital Test Flight, an uncrewed flight to the ISS. Unfortunately, due to software glitches, Starliner had to return to Earth, never reaching the ISS. Boeing continues to develop the spacecraft for future crewed flights.

Boeing, the once esteemed aerospace contractor has had its hands in almost every national space program sinceApollo. However, it seems likely that the company wants to divest itself of almost all of its space programs.

Over the weekend,NASA made its decision thatBoeing’s Starliner would not be safe enough to risk returning its crew from space. Instead, the agency has decided the two astronauts who flew up to space on it will return withCrew-9 onSpaceX’s Dragon early next year.

In an update to the media this week,NASA reiterated many points it said in an earlier update as it works through more data before making a final decision on theStarliner CFT spacecraft. For now, Starliner’s crew are in limbo as to what how and when they will return home.

NASA‘s mood toward’s the safety of returningBoeing‘s Crewed Flight Test crew back on Starliner has switched from steadfast support to plans to use SpaceXDragon for a return flight. However, this has caused drastic changes to bothSpaceX‘s and NASA’s launched schedules using itsCrew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA held a press conference yesterday to talk about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Starliner. In attendance were Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Bill Spetch, operations integrations manager; Emily Nelson, chief flight director at JSC; and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program element.

Over a 24 hour process, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft inched their way to rendezvous with theInternational Space Station Thursday. In typical Starliner fashion, it wasn’t perfect, but the crew arrived to the station safe and are ready to get some work done.

NASA and Boeing teams are targeting a 12:15 P.M. ET docking of Starliner with the International Space Station aftera successful liftoff Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning Boeing, ULA, and NASA once again convened to attempt to launch theStarliner CFT mission with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard. With a clean countdown, ULA’s Atlas V successfully delivered Starliner to space, however, two additional helium leaks have been found while in orbit, but docking is planned to continue unchanged.

After about a month of delays due to a helium leak and review of its propulsion system, Boeing and NASA are ready to launch the final test flight of the Commercial Crew Program, Starliner Crewed Flight Test.

ULA has completed repairs toAtlas V‘s ground launch sequencer, which was the cause of Saturday’s last-minute abort toBoeing‘s first crewed liftoff. Starliner’sCFT mission has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at 10:52 A.M. ET.

It seems like this is again not Starliner’s week, asNASA andBoeing pushing the launch of the first crewed Starliner spaceflight back from the May 25th launch date. The new launch date is no earlier than June 1, one week later. However what is going on withStarliner is less than clear.

This week will be the third week in a row the headline launch is supposed to be Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test. SpaceX is also planning another banger of a week with three launches and Rocket Lab shows up again.

Boeingannounced Tuesday morning that they,ULA, andNASA are now no longer targeting a launch for this Friday ofBoeing‘s first crewedStarliner mission. Due to a helium leak on the Starliner’s service module, the launch is slated for no earlier than May 21.

Once again the big story this week will be the reattempt ofBoeing’s CFT mission to theInternational Space Station. After a week of analysis,ULA is changing out a valve on the rockets upper stage which is what caused the abort last week.

After an extremely smooth countdown and crew egress,ULA controllers called a scrubStarliner’s Crewed Flight Test a few hours before planned liftoff due to a misbehaving valve. While the problem is a known issue by ULA, it will take a few days to trouble shoot, meaning the next launch attempt won’t be until at least Friday.

By the end of the week the International Space Station will be fully ready to support Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight with an opening on the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony Module. This will be completed with the reshuffling of two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Last weekBoeing andULA rolled a Starliner spacecraft from the former’s facilities on Kennedy Space Center to the latter’s launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. With that, final checkouts are underway before twoNASA astronauts climb inside and fly it to theISS and back.

Two months since Boeing and NASA’s joint press conference, where they disclosed a significant delay in the Starliner Crewed Flight Test mission, a timetable for the potential launch of CFT has now emerged. It looks like SpaceX will end up covering crew rotation for a little bit longer.

In a press conference hosted by NASA, Boeing officials unveiled new problems found during its most recent review. These two issues are delaying the launch of Starliner’s Crewed Flight Test past the current July launch window with marginal hope of launching before the new year.

It looked like Boeing would have a fantastic April with the launch of its first crewed flight of the Starliner spacecraft. However, now it seems like we’re going to have to wait until July before we see this milestone launch from the company to the International Space Station.

In the company’s second quarterly earnings report, Boeing has absorbed a $96 million charge in relation to its Starliner spacecraft program. This brings Boeing’s Starliner cost overrun tally to $688 million due to numerous problems.