{"id":209588,"date":"2025-12-01T12:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209588\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T12:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:32:22","slug":"nasa-cuts-astronaut-trips-via-boeing-starliner-flight-to-4-next-mission-scheduled-for-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209588\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA cuts astronaut trips via Boeing Starliner flight to 4, next mission scheduled for April 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States space agency NASA <\/a>and aerospace manufacturer Boeing have agreed to cut down the number of space flights astronauts take via the company’s Starliner capsule from six to four, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported that NASA in its statement said the original $4.5 billion contract, awarded to Boeing <\/a>under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program has been revised, with the last two flights of the original six, set to be optional.<\/p>\n

A Boeing representative had no immediate comment when contacted by Bloomberg on the same.<\/p>\n

Last Boeing mission left Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore stranded<\/p>\n

Eight months after the first and only Starliner crew returned to Earth after a prolonged mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS<\/a>), following problems with the capsule, NASA on 24 November announced that the deal has been shortened, AP reported.<\/p>\n

NASA pilots Sunita Williams<\/a> and Butch Wilmore were stranded on the ISS and had to return nine months later on a SpaceX flight, after the Boeing Starliner had so many issues, it was ordered to return to Earth empty.<\/p>\n

What’s next for Boeing Starliner project?<\/p>\n

Since then, the report added that engineers <\/a>have been working on resolving issues with the Starliner’s thrusters, propulsion system, and other technical faults that caused trouble during the last mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year,\u201d NASA\u2019s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The next planned mission, Starliner-1 is schedule no earlier than April 2026 and will be a cargo test run to the ISS. This is still pending additional tests and certification before it is confirmed, the AP report added. If the cargo mission is successful, then NASA <\/a>will plan crew flight missions with the Starliner before the ISS is decommissioned in 2030.<\/p>\n

The Reuters report added that the uncrewed test is the third such for Boeing and has cost the company over $2 billion since 2016.<\/p>\n

NASA signed contracts with both Boeing and Elon Musk<\/a>‘s SpaceX in 2014. The SpaceX contract was worth $2.6 billion and completed its first astronaut mission for NASA in 2020 \u2014 till summer 2025 it has completed 12 missions for NASA, the AP report added.<\/p>\n

(With inputs from Agencies)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States space agency NASA and aerospace manufacturer Boeing have agreed to cut down the number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[114786,15976,114785,79,114783,18,19,9128,17,1024,133,451,27392,37074,2731,114782,114787,114784],"class_list":{"0":"post-209588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronaut-flights","9":"tag-boeing","10":"tag-boeing-starliner","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-commercial-crew-program","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-international-space-station","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-nasa","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-space","20":"tag-space-missions","21":"tag-space-travel","22":"tag-spacex","23":"tag-starliner-capsule","24":"tag-technical-challenges","25":"tag-uncrewed-mission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115644330318085136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}