NASA is planning to give the beleaguered Boeing Starliner another shot at space — in late 2025
- NASA is planning to give the Boeing Starliner another chance.
- The agency has scheduled two SpaceX launches — Crew-10 and Crew-11 — for 2025.
NASA has released the schedule for its commercial launches in 2025, and the Boeing Starliner is slated to get another chance at spaceflight.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the agency listed the "Next Starliner Flight" as the last of its three launches in its 2025 schedule.
But it added that the spacecraft's next flight dates will be released after "Crew Flight Test lessons" are incorporated into the aircraft and NASA approves its "operational readiness."
"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," the blog post said.
"Meanwhile, NASA is keeping options on the table for how best to achieve system certification, including windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025," it added.
The first planned launch of 2025 will be the SpaceX Crew-10 mission. NASA said in its blog post that the agency is now targeting a launch "no earlier than February 2025."
According to the post, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with astronauts from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russia's Roscosmos, will be on the mission.
The second slot of the year has been reserved for the SpaceX Crew-11 mission, which will take place "no earlier than July," the post added. The four-person crew of the Crew-11 mission will be revealed at a later date.
Hope for Starliner
The Boeing Starliner, which returned to New Mexico on September 6 without its crew, suffered several issues with its thrusters and helium leaks as it approached the International Space Station on June 6 to dock.
The difficulties resulted in the delay in the return of its crew — the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. NASA said it decided to "prioritize safety and return Starliner without its crew."
The agency has now turned to SpaceX to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth. The duo are scheduled to return via the SpaceX Crew Dragon in February 2025.
SpaceX and Boeing's competition continues
The two companies have been in the commercial space exploration race since they both won highly sought-after NASA contracts totaling $6.8 billion in 2014.
According to NASA's 2014 press release, Boeing and SpaceX were allotted $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.
The contracts were part of NASA's public-private partnership, the Commercial Crew Program.
Following the Starliner's successful launch in June, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that his space exploration company had beat Boeing to the punch four years before.
In 2020, SpaceX surged ahead of Boeing in the space race when it became the first private company to fly astronauts to space.
Musk brought that win up in an X post about Starliner in May, writing: "SpaceX finished 4 years sooner."
Now, Musk is accusing the Federal Aviation Administration of playing favorites with Boeing.
In September, he wrote on X that the FAA should punish Boeing for its Starliner failures rather than impose "petty" fines on SpaceX.
This was after the FAA proposed a $633,009 fine for SpaceX, saying that Musk's company had violated the terms of its launch licenses during two launches in June and July 2023.
Representatives for NASA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside business hours.