After failed mission, Boeing will repeat test flight of capsule before flying with crew

ORLANDO, Fla. — After a failed December test flight of its astronaut capsule revealed multiple deep-seated problems within Boeing’s testing procedures, the company has decided to repeat the test before putting astronauts on board.

That puts SpaceX, the other private company building an astronaut-rated spacecraft for NASA, on a clear track to become the first to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011. SpaceX is scheduled to perform its crewed test mission as early as next month.

Boeing’s second unpiloted dress rehearsal may not come until later this year.

The decision to repeat the test came following an independent review that issued 61 corrective actions to both Boeing and NASA after the Dec. 20 test flight ended prematurely and revealed multiple flaws within Boeing’s system and NASA’s oversight.

Boeing then proposed to NASA that it re-do its test, a proposition NASA announced Monday evening it had accepted. The company had the option to propose moving ahead with a mission carrying crew.

“The second uncrewed flight does not relieve Boeing from completing all the actions determined from the joint NASA/Boeing independent review team,” NASA said in a statement. “NASA still intends to conduct the needed oversight to make sure those corrective actions are taken.”

Starliner’s uncrewed demonstration mission late last year quickly devolved when the spacecraft missed a critical maneuver because its internal timer was running 11 hours ahead, sending it to the wrong orbit and causing to miss docking with the International Space Station. Teams couldn’t communicate with the spacecraft to fix the problem in time. And, later, when the team tried to hunt for other issues, they discovered another code error that could have caused the capsule to collide with its service module.

The errors were a result of numerous software and hardware issues that should have been caught in testing, but were not. In all, Boeing experienced 49 gaps in testing.

A second uncrewed test flight will allow Boeing to prove Starliner can safely carry crew to the station, a milestone NASA previously said wasn’t necessarily a requirement of the test mission, casting doubt as to whether Boeing would move straight ahead to a crewed launch.