NASA pares back Boeing's Starliner deal after 2024 calamity

NASA has modified its Commercial Crew contract with Boeing, dropping the order from six to four missions, of which one will be uncrewed.

The uncrewed mission, Starliner-1, will be used for in-flight validation of the upgrades made to Boeing's Calamity Capsule following the disastrous test flight in 2024 that left the crew, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, with an unexpectedly long stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA engineers had deemed the vehicle unsafe to return the astronauts to Earth.

Starliner-1 will not launch before April 2026. Assuming all goes well, the capsule will fly up to three crew rotations to the ISS. Managers hope to squeeze one of those missions into next year.

The original contract was awarded in 2014. At least two and up to six crewed missions were initially offered. Boeing's price was $4.2 billion. The other successful bidder, SpaceX, came in at ...