![]() ![]() There are eight years of lifetime left in the space station if it stops flying in 2030. SpaceX would be contracted for 10 additional missions, and Boeing has six on the books. ![]() Why? Because NASA only plans to fly two crewed space station missions per year, with four astronauts aboard each. But based on the numbers of this week's announcement, it now seems probable that there are no additional crewed missions to award to Boeing. This seems prudent, as Boeing has yet to fully demonstrate Starliner's capabilities with crew on board. NASA has yet to announce the purchase of additional Starliner missions. "However, we will need additional missions from SpaceX to implement our strategy of having each commercial provider flying alternating missions once per year." "Boeing's Orbital Flight Test-2 went very well and we hope to be able to certify the Starliner system in the near future," said Phil McAllister, director of commercial space at NASA, in the agency's news release. Looking ahead, Boeing will probably complete a crewed flight test of Starliner late this year or early in 2023 and then fly its first operational mission sometime in 2023, or possibly later if issues are discovered on the crewed test flight. The company recently completed a largely successful uncrewed test flight in May. The latest announcement would bring the total number of Crew Dragon missions to 14.Īs for Boeing, it has yet to fly an operational mission to the station. In February 2022, NASA awarded fixed-price contracts for the Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 missions to SpaceX. SpaceX has two more flights under its original crew contract with NASA. SpaceX has already launched four operational crew missions to the space station, dating to the November 15, 2020, launch of the Crew-1 mission. Under the new agreement, SpaceX would fly 14 crewed missions to the station on Crew Dragon, and Boeing would fly six during the lifetime of the station. The announcement also suggests that SpaceX will fly more than twice as many crews to the space station than the other partner in NASA's commercial crew program, Boeing. Further Reading NASA’s verdict on Starliner: “A great vehicle for crew transportation” ![]()
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