Boeing Delays 1st Test Flight of Crew Capsule to August: Report

Artist's illustration of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule in orbit.
Artist's illustration of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule in orbit. (Image credit: Boeing)

Boeing has delayed the first spaceflight of its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule — an uncrewed test mission to the International Space Station (ISS) — from next month until August at the earliest, according to Reuters. 

The target date for Starliner's first crewed ISS flight has also been pushed back, from August until November, Reuters reported Wednesday (March 20), citing unnamed industry sources. One of these sources said that technical issues weren't the sole factor; scheduling issues at Starliner's launch site, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, also contributed.

Spokespersons for Boeing and NASA declined to comment, but the NASA official said an updated launch schedule will be published next week, Reuters reported.

Boeing is developing Starliner to carry astronauts to and from the ISS, under a $4.2 billion contract the aerospace giant signed with NASA in 2014. SpaceX holds a similar commercial-crew deal, valued at $2.6 billion, to get that company's Crew Dragon capsule up and running.

Crew Dragon already has one spaceflight under its belt: Earlier this month, the SpaceX capsule aced a six-day, uncrewed demonstration mission to the ISS known as Demo-1. SpaceX plans to conduct an in-flight test of Crew Dragon's emergency-escape system soon; if all goes well with that uncrewed launch, Crew Dragon could carry two NASA astronauts to the ISS on the Demo-2 demonstration flight as early as July.

Contracted, operational missions carrying four astronauts will commence sometime after that.

NASA signed the commercial-crew deals with Boeing and SpaceX to bring orbital human spaceflight back to U.S. soil. The nation has been without this capability since July 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle fleet after 30 years of service.

Ever since then, NASA has depended on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the ISS. A seat aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft currently costs about $80 million.

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook

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Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.