Boeing‘s Starliner is a human-grade space capsule designed to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Boeing began work on the capsule in 2014, when it signed a $4.2 billion contract with NASA under the agency’s Industrial Crew Program.
NASA also chosen SpaceX for the job, giving Elon Musk’s company $2.6 billion to develop its Crew Dragon capsule.
“The whole thing of the Industrial Crew Program was very much a recent enterprise,” said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space. “Prior to that, NASA relied on a variety of its own engineering talent to get humans to the space station.”
Henry said this system allowed NASA to dump “a few of those responsibilities to the private sector.”
“There was some reticence in Congress towards the sort of approach,” he said. “It was only because Boeing threw its hat within the ring that Congress and by extension, NASA, were confident enough to truly go forward with this program.”
In the last decade since, Boeing has struggled to deliver on the six missions it’s contracted to fly with NASA.
Of the nearly $5 billion Boeing has received to develop Starliner thus far, the corporate has spent $1.5 billion to cover delay overruns. Boeing recently launched its last test, a milestone crewed mission, which it needs to finish before NASA can certify Starliner to start operational missions.
SpaceX, meanwhile, has accomplished over a dozen crewed missions to space, launching each NASA astronauts and personal residents since 2020.
Watch the video to learn more concerning the obstacles that Boeing has faced with its Starliner project and what the long run may hold for its long-awaited capsule.