Boeing’s Starliner Absent From 2025 NASA Commercial Crew Lineup
- by Aviation Week
- Oct 15, 2024
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October 15, 2024
The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly-around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021.
Credit: NASA/Thomas Pesquet
HOUSTON—In an update to planned Commercial Crew Program launches to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is designating SpaceX for the launch of two Crew Dragon missions associated with the semiannual exchange of astronauts and Russian cosmonauts living and working aboard the orbital lab during 2025, with Boeing’s Starliner absent from the schedule.
The four-person SpaceX Crew 10 and 11 missions are planned for launches no earlier than February and July of 2025.
While a crewed Boeing CST-100 Starliner mission has not been ruled out during 2025, it remains unscheduled in the wake of this year’s Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT). Following a June 5 launch with NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, the Starliner crew capsule experienced multiple propulsion system issues prior to its June 6 docking to the ISS U.S. segment.
Efforts to troubleshoot the issues with both ground- and space-based testing led to a mission extension and a decision by NASA to return Starliner to Earth uncrewed. The capsule landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on Sept. 7.
As a consequence, Wilmore and Williams remain aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 72 and are to join NASA’s two Crew-9 Dragon members, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Grubonov, for a return to Earth currently planned for February.
“The timing and configuration of Starliner’s next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established. This determination will include considerations for incorporating Crew Flight Test lessons learned, approvals of final certification products and operational readiness,” NASA stated in the Oct. 15 Commercial Crew Program update. “Meanwhile, NASA is keeping options on the table for how best to achieve system certification, including windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025.”
The NASA update also listed the Crew-10 Dragon flyers: NASA astronaut Anne McClain, serving as commander, pilot Nichole Ayers and mission specialists Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Ayers and Peskov will be launching for the first time.
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX continue to evaluate weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean waters off the Florida peninsula, which have led to multiple delays in the planned undocking and return to Earth of Crew-8 Dragon astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
They launched to the ISS on March 3 but their departure has been delayed by weather, including Hurricane Milton, at their seven splashdown site options.
“If weather conditions improve, NASA and SpaceX will target no earlier than 3:05 a.m. Friday, Oct. 18, for undocking from the space station,” NASA says.
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