Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft Set for Historic First Crewed Flight After Delays and Challenges

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set to make its first crewed flight on May 6 following a series of delays and issues during test flights. NASA and Boeing officials announced their decision this week with May not being a “magical date”, but rather when they are ready for launch. The mission will see astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore travel to the International Space Station, marking what could be a historic victory for Starliner after years of setbacks during test flights.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson hailed it as “history in the making” when speaking at a March news conference. The US space agency has long waited for both Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to operate regularly, keeping the orbiting outpost fully staffed with astronauts from NASA and its partner agencies.
SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program alongside Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in a partnership between private industry contractors and the federal agency. From the programme’s outset, NASA aimed to have both companies operating at once with each serving as backup for the other should technical issues or setbacks arise.
NASA did not initially envisage SpaceX’s Crew Dragon beating Boeing’s Starliner in reaching its first crewed test flight but missteps riddled a Starliner mission last year, leaving NASA and Boeing officials scrambling to figure out what went wrong with the spacecraft failing to dock due to software problems.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has since flown 13 missions carrying astronauts from May last year, when it completed its maiden operational mission in orbit as part of NASA’s commercial crew programme – while Starliner suffered delays caused by a list of issues uncovered during the spacecraft’s second unmanned test flight.
NASA officials at one point admitted that they had turned more scrutiny towards SpaceX and its “unorthodox” ways, whilst issues with Boeing’s Starlinger slipped through cracks. They noted then that when a provider has a newer approach than another it’s often natural for humans to spend more time on the new approach rather than an older one like Boeings’.
Boeing faces scrutiny due in part to scandals surrounding its commercial airplane division, including the 737 Max crisis and recent quality control issues highlighted after a door plug blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year. NASA officials have also made clear they are working more closely with Boeing than ever before, with personnel on the ground at Boeing facilities overseeing some of the fixes being implemented ahead of May’s upcoming mission – despite such claims still prompted some derision online given their past track record.
Boeing and NASA have had a long list of issues to address during test flights including parachute suspension lines having lower thresholds for failure than expected, requiring engineers to conduct fixes earlier this year as well as flammable tape used to protect wiring harnesses that required replacement – some 1 mile’s worth in total. Boeing may also need a redesign of certain valves due to corrosion issues but won’t be implemented until the second crewed flight at the earliest, slated for 2025.
Despite this, Williams and Wilmore said they are as confident as ever ahead of May’s mission with both astronauts having full faith in not only their own capabilities – citing how long they have been working on space missions – but also Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and the ground control team.
“We want the general public to think it’s easy, but it’s not — it’s way hard,” said Wilmore who acknowledged there were a “whole lotta ways that we could mess this up”.