NASA Weighs Boeing Starliner’s Role in Future Low Earth Orbit Missions

NASA faces a difficult choice as Dragon nears retirement

With Dragon likely to be retired by 2030, NASA faces a difficult decision about how to transport astronauts in low Earth orbit. The space agency is considering extending the International Space Station’s lifespan until 2032 while also supporting commercial space stations known as Commercial LEO Destinations, or CLDs.

NASA needs a reliable way to transport astronauts to those destinations. Despite Starliner’s previous shortcomings, the Boeing spacecraft is currently the clearest option.

Some critics have suggested that NASA fund a second crew transportation competition involving companies such as Boeing, Blue Origin—which has a spacecraft under development—and potentially the Exploration Company.

However, Mr. Isaacman appeared reluctant to support an investment that could cost billions of dollars. At a press conference, he said NASA’s future demand for astronaut flights to low Earth orbit would be approximately two seats every six to nine months.

NASA officials also said the United States has already invested heavily in Boeing’s commercial crew program. They argued that abandoning Starliner now, as the spacecraft nears completion, would risk wasting that investment.

Meanwhile, Boeing appears energized by the opportunity to strengthen the United States’ role in providing astronaut access to low Earth orbit.

“We are very excited about our partnership with NASA,” said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president and commercial crew program manager. “If we continue to fly to the International Space Station and, obviously, get Vulcan certification, our goal is to do missions beyond the six that we currently have. We certainly have had discussions with all of our CLD providers about becoming their preferred transportation supplier in the future.”

Could Boeing end up competing with itself?

Boeing has not completed all of that work yet. Cost is another major concern for NASA and future commercial space station operators. After Dragon leaves the market, Boeing could dominate crew transportation to low Earth orbit, at least temporarily.

For the Starliner 2 through Starliner 6 missions, NASA and Boeing have agreed to a price of approximately $90 million per seat. However, Boeing was in talks with CLD providers this summer and had not committed to seat prices for the 2030s.

“The Vulcan rocket is not certified, the spacecraft is not certified, and we do not have detailed pricing for Vulcan, so we were unable to provide detailed pricing to CLD suppliers,” Mulholland said. “That’s something that will happen in the future, but obviously we want to be as competitive as possible.”