BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — The now famous ill-fated attempt to get Boeing’s Starliner capsule to begin ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station was a setback, but not a fatal blow to the program, NASA leaders said Tuesday.
During a press conference to celebrate the return of test pilots Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, NASA executives Joel Montalbano and Steve Stich revealed testing on the Starliner was scheduled for this summer.
Boeing and NASA engineers identified seals that were candidates for replacement to see if it solved the helium leaks and other issues Starliner encountered last June, they explained.
Testing to see if the seal replacements correct those problems will take place in the New Mexico desert.
After those tests, they said NASA will determine when and how Starliner can return to the space rotation. Crew-11 is scheduled to blast off with a SpaceX Dragon capsule as soon as July, but they left the fate of Crew-12 up in the air.
Another option, they said, was to launch an unmanned – but fully crew-capable – Starliner capsule to the Space Station, which could be used to resupply the station or positioned as a backup return vehicle in case of an emergency.
They reaffirmed Boeing’s commitment to the program, despite the mounting costs, and NASA’s goal of having multiple companies capable of delivering humans into orbit.
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