Boeing Starliner CFT now set for March 2024
Boeing Starliner CFT now set for March 2024
Boeing Co. aims to have its Starliner capsule ready for its first flight to the International Space Station with astronauts on board around next March, with a long-delayed launch following NASA approval.
So this is a bit tangential to SpaceX, but somewhat related so posting it anyway.
With CFT set for March earliest (and who knows when it’ll actually happen?) we’ll see SpaceX fly Crew-8 and Crew-9 as well, before Starliners first operational mission in Spring 2025, if all goes as scheduled from now on…
Good chance we'll see 6 private Dragon capsule missions (Axiom1-4, Jared's first 2 flights) before we see Starliner with crew
Has 2025 for Starliner-1 been confirmed anywhere? I think it's right, but I don't think they officially said so.
They seemed noncommittal about timing and made it sound like Starliner-1 could still be late 2024, but that feels impossible. If Crew 8 is Feb-Aug '24 and Starliner CFT-2 is NET March '24, during Crew-8, then Crew-9 would have to be on a Dragon to give enough time to turn around Starliner certification and get the next capsule ready.
Here's a link that isn't paywalled:
https://spacenews.com/first-starliner-crewed-flight-delayed-to-2024/
It came out after the press conference today, too, so it might have more info (idk, I can't read the Bloomberg one).
Thank you
Better late than never I guess. The fixed price contract ended up being a boon for NASA as they weren't affected by the massive over-run on cost.