July 18 (UPI) — The Boeing Company has confirmed it continues to look for solutions to problems with its Starliner spacecraft that have left the over-budget project unable to carry passengers.<\/p>\n
Boeing confirmed this week<\/a> it is pushing ahead and trying to address helium plug seal leaks on the spacecraft, as well as problems with its thermal shunts and issues with overheating thrusters.\n<\/p>\n The company’s officials have already said the spacecraft’s<\/a> next flight won’t happen until at least early next year and likely will carry only cargo, with no crew.<\/p>\n Boeing is working with its propulsion supplier, California-based defense contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, to find solutions to the ongoing issues.\n<\/p>\n The Boeing Starliner has been plagued by problems, is already more than $2 billion over budget and currently grounded at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first test flight took pace in June of 2024.<\/p>\n It last flew in September 2024 when it returned unmanned<\/a> from the International Space Station, landing at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.<\/p>\n The crewless return was out of precaution because of helium leaks and thruster issues and left the two-person NASA crew stranded aboard<\/a> the ISS.\n<\/p>\n NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams only returned to<\/a> earth this past March aboard a SpaceX<\/a> Dragon rocket with that company’s crew. Wilmore and Williams spent nine months in space because of the issues with Boeing’s Starliner.<\/p>\n The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson<\/a> said at the time.<\/a><\/p>\n “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”<\/p>\n Boeing announced the Starliner program in 2010 and originally forecast the ship would be in regular service by 2015 to help carry NASA personnel to and from the ISS.<\/p>\n Over a decade later, issues persist and the company has yet to begin a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA.<\/p>\n “We really are working toward a flight as soon as early next year with Starliner, and then ultimately, our goal is to get into crew rotation flights with Starliner,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich told reporters this week.<\/a><\/p>\n “And those would start no earlier than the second crew rotation slot at the end of next year.”\n<\/p>\n The work continues despite NASA predictions the ISS will deorbit and crash<\/a> in the South Pacific Ocean near Point Nemo in January of 2031.<\/p>\n Former President Joe Biden<\/a>‘s administration said the space station would remain in service until 2030, after it was launched in 1998.<\/p>\n