{"id":162305,"date":"2025-12-01T12:26:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162305\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T12:26:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:26:20","slug":"nasa-cuts-astronaut-trips-via-boeing-starliner-flight-to-4-next-mission-scheduled-for-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162305\/","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":162306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[97516,9208,97515,114,97513,85,8400,46,3442,141,145,17180,92957,4688,97512,97517,97514],"class_list":["post-162305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astronaut-flights","tag-boeing","tag-boeing-starliner","tag-business","tag-commercial-crew-program","tag-il","tag-international-space-station","tag-israel","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-missions","tag-space-travel","tag-spacex","tag-starliner-capsule","tag-technical-challenges","tag-uncrewed-mission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}