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https://x.com/nasaspaceflight/status...372797553?s=61

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​​​​​​​NASA Statement. Contract with Boeing modified to four Starliner flights. April 2026 mission with an uncrewed Starliner, followed by three crewed flights if that goes well.

‘In 2014, NASA awarded a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract to Boeing to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station with its Starliner spacecraft. As part of its contract, Boeing was awarded up to six crewed flights to the orbital complex.

After a thorough evaluation, NASA and Boeing have mutually agreed to modify the contract. As part of the modification, the definitive order has been adjusted to four missions, with the remaining two available as options. The next Starliner flight, known as Starliner-1, will be used by NASA to deliver necessary cargo to the orbital laboratory and allow in-flight validation of the system upgrades implemented following the Crew Flight Test mission last year.

NASA and Boeing are targeting no earlier than April 2026 to fly the uncrewed Starliner-1 pending completion of rigorous test, certification, and mission readiness activities. Following Starliner certification, and a successful Starliner-1 mission, Starliner will fly up to three crew rotations to the International Space Station.

“NASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “This modification allows NASA and Boeing to focus on safely certifying the system in 2026, execute Starliner’s first crew rotation when ready, and align our ongoing flight planning for future Starliner missions based on station’s operational needs through 2030.”

Certification of Boeing’s Starliner remains important to NASA’s goal of sustained human presence in low Earth orbit and dissimilar redundancy is essential to supporting the agency’s goals and international obligations.

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https://x.com/CJHandmer/status/2024721556124160063?s=20

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Unfortunately the diagrams that are crucial for understanding the implications for loss of 6 DoF control are redacted. But... "Without the precise actions of the crew and flight control team, this event could have resulted in a loss of the Starliner crew."

Yikes yikes yikes.

NASA is extremely protective of the ISS. SpaceX cargo Dragon had to jump through many hoops to prevent any possibility of damaging it, and Russia has managed to crash into space stations a few times over the years. If Starliner had been uncrewed, NASA would have noped out of that docking instantly. But with crew aboard, they spent a few hours desperately keeping the guidance system on life support and got just enough thrusters working just well enough to limp to the docking - probably saving the crews' lives.

yet, at the time, the "managed narrative" emerging from Boeing and their mouthpieces all over NASA was "this is fine, don't worry about it" as though NASA could expect Butch and Suni to voluntarily crawl back into that death trap and attempt to ride it back to Earth.

This is early Soyuz program level failures, where everything went wrong, and a couple of the crews died.

We got so damn lucky.

I read through 100 pages of recommendations. Not one errant manager is named. Not one recommendation mentions personnel as a potential issue.

What are the odds, that of the hundreds or thousands of people working on this program, every single one just happens to be the best person for the job? All they need is for a few dotted lines to be drawn on the org chart and a quick pep talk and their organizational efficacy will magically shift from F to A+?.....

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In news that should shock no one, NASA has moved the "Starliner-1" mission from June 2026 on its internal calendar to "under review."

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