Boeing is a major American aerospace company that operates in the space industry through its Defense, Space & Security division. It designs, manufactures, and sells space systems, including satellites, spacecraft, and rockets, for both commercial and military applications. Boeing is a key partner with NASA, contributing to programs like the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the development of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for crewed missions to low Earth orbit.
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NASA and Boeing have been working together since Starliner returned to identify and address the challenges encountered during the mission, and technical root cause work continues.
NASA will continue to work closely with Boeing to fully understand and solve the technical challenges with the Starliner vehicle and to incorporate investigative recommendations before flying the next mission.
Boeing remains a principal provider for the Commercial Crew Program alongside SpaceX and is collaborating with NASA to prepare future Starliner missions.
NASA released a report of findings from a Program Investigation Team examining the Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crewed Flight Test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner launched on its first crewed test flight on June 5, 2024.
Boeing’s original commercial crew contract with NASA included six operational missions to the International Space Station after the 2024 Crewed Flight Test (CFT) mission.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were the Crew Flight Test astronauts launched to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner.
The Boeing KC-46A Pegasus is currently being introduced to replace legacy KC-135 aircraft and its program has faced technical and schedule challenges over the past decade.
The report described dynamics in which optimistic presentations of data by strong personalities within NASA’s commercial crew program and Boeing discouraged dissent and contributed to distrust.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was docked to the Harmony module’s forward port on July 3, 2024.
The EO/IR sensors produced on the new Boeing production line are capable of identifying the heat signatures of ballistic and hypersonic glide vehicles against the Earth’s background.
Boeing confirmed it will continue to work on Starliner and stated that in the 18 months since the test flight it has made substantial progress on corrective actions and driven cultural changes aligned with the report’s findings.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has been grounded since its flawed crewed test flight in mid-2024 that returned the spacecraft without the two astronauts who launched on it.
The new 9,000-square-foot production line is located within Boeing’s primary satellite factory in El Segundo, California.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station.
Boeing opened a new 9,000-square-foot production line in El Segundo dedicated to manufacturing electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) sensors.
The new Boeing production line enables a transition from rapid prototyping to rate manufacturing for EO/IR payloads.
The independent review identified three non-technical root causes for the Starliner CFT incident: a hands-off NASA approach early in the commercial crew program, inadequate systems engineering and integration at Boeing, and a program culture that accepted greater risk to support two providers.
The new production line provides manufacturing capacity to support Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems in fulfilling its contract for the U.S. Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking (MWT MEO) program.
SpaceX Dragon Endeavour was docked to the port adjacent to Boeing’s Starliner on July 3, 2024.