NASA orders up more SpaceX flights, tables Boeing’s Starliner until at least late 2025

NASA has officially given SpaceX the next two missions to the International Space Station under its Commercial Crew Program with Boeing’s Starliner still potentially available for a late visit in 2025 if it achieves certification.

NASA announced updated crew rotation plans Tuesday including a crew assignment for Crew-10, the program’s next flight up to the station targeting February.

Crew-10 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Anne McClain making her second trip to space. She’ll be joined by rookie pilot Nichole Ayers, the first of the 2021 astronaut class to get a space assignment. Also flying with be Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi making his second trip to space and rookie Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

It went ahead and pulled the trigger to give Elon Musk’s company the second planned mission of 2025 with Crew-11 targeting no earlier than July, with its crew to be announced at a later date.

That summer target launch for Crew-11 still opens the door for Boeing’s beleaguered spacecraft to slot in at the end of the year, but NASA has to find a path forward to certify Starliner for regular missions working with what ended up being an incomplete Crew Flight Test mission this summer.

“The timing and configuration of Starliner’s next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,” NASA posted on its website. “This determination will include considerations for incorporating Crew Flight Test lessons learned, approvals of final certification products, and operational readiness.”

The CFT mission launched NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on Starliner to the ISS on June 5 for what was supposed to be an eight-day visit to the station, but issues with failing thrusters and helium leaks on Starliner’s propulsion system ultimately pushed NASA to keep Wilmore and Williams on board the ISS and send Starliner back to Earth without crew.

Wilmore and Williams instead will remain on station for more than eight months having already joined Expedition 72 aboard the ISS.

Starliner did manage to land safely, though, and a summer’s worth of testing on why the thrusters failed and why it had so many helium leaks does give Boeing a working path forward to correct issues, which could ultimately allow for the spacecraft to be certified without another test launch.

Boeing and SpaceX were both awarded contracts for crewed ferry service to the ISS back in 2016, as NASA’s solution to bring back U.S.-based launches of its astronauts after the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon under an initial $2.6 billion contract while Boeing received $4.6 billion for Starliner, each tasked to perform one uncrewed test flight, one crewed test flight and then provide six operational missions for crew rotation to the ISS. NASA wanted two companies so there could be American-based backups, and not force them to have to rely on Russia for flights to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft.

Both Boeing and SpaceX faced delays getting their uncrewed missions off the ground, but SpaceX managed its required human spaceflight test with the completion of the Demo-2 mission in 2020.

That has paved the way for what has now been nine operational flights to the ISS with Crew-9 aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom arriving in late September, notably with just two crew on board — NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Grubonov — so that Williams and Wilmore could get a ride home next February.

Crew-8 meanwhile, made up of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, awaits the OK to fly the Crew Dragon Endeavour back home having been on the ISS since March. That return flight, though, is awaiting good weather off the coast of Florida.

To date, SpaceX has now flown 56 humans to space across 15 flights of its fleet of four Crew Dragon spacecraft, all the while earning more money from NASA with additional flights ordered for crew rotation service. The 15 missions include five private flights for either Axiom Space to the ISS or the two orbital missions spearheaded by billionaire Jared Isaacman — Inspiration4 and this year’s Polaris Dawn.

Boeing meanwhile has reported more than $1.6 billion in losses while only getting a portion of the $4.2 billion original contract for development costs.

Its first uncrewed Starliner flight in 2019 had dozens of issues and was not able to rendezvous with the ISS, forcing an overhaul of the spacecraft program that led to a 2 1/2-year delay before completing a second uncrewed mission in 2022. More delays piled on as it tried to get the CFT flight off the ground. It finally launched with Wilmore and Williams more that four years after SpaceX managed the launch of its commensurate Demo-2 mission.

The ISS has a limited lifespan for both SpaceX and Boeing to continue servicing it as NASA plans to decommission the space station by 2030.

Its original plan was to have Boeing and SpaceX share duties with only one flight to the station each per year, as crews would remain on station for about six month.

But NASA has a contract for six Boeing flights, so it could be Starliner, if certified, ends up putting in more rotational missions at the back end of the ISS lifespan.