Starliner Timeline: How NASA Boeing Mission Faced Glitches From The Word Go, Much Before Sunita Williams Test Flight

Starliner Timeline: NASA will return faulty Starliner spacecraft uncrewed, leaving astronauts Sunita Williams & Butch Wilmore on ISS until early 2025. Here is a timeline of Boeing's troubled mission.

Sunita Williams’s Return: NASA said on August 24 it will bring back Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to Earth uncrewed, which meant that the two astronauts — Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — it took to the International Space Centre on June 6 as part of its first crewed test flight will have to stay in space until early next year. NASA said Williams and Wilmore will return aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Starliner is likely to leave the space station and make a “controlled autonomous” return to Earth early next month.

The space agency said the two astronauts will stay on and continue their work on the ISS as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew, and fly back with two other crew members to be assigned to the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. 

"Spaceflight is risky…A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. 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…,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday.

Starliner launch to ISS on June 5 was its first test flight with crew. Boeing has been vying with SpaceX to conduct routine flights to space, and this test was crucial for the company to get NASA’s approval for it. However, while the docking was successful, the issues discovered by engineers in the spacecraft — helium leaks and thruster failures — turned an eight-day mission into an eight-month space odyssey for the test flight commander, Butch Wilmore, and pilot Sunita Williams.

Boeing's Starliner mission has seen numerous technical hurdles and setbacks since it made the first attempt to dock with the International Space Station in 2019 but faced a software failure.

Marred By Delays From The Word Go

Starliner's journey to space has been marked by glitches, delays, and postponements from the very beginning — right from the time when one of its parachutes failed to open during an unmanned test in November 2019. 

Boeing’s ultimate plan was to launch commercial spaceships, which NASA would use to fly its crews to the space station, before it gave the final nod to operate routine flights, as reported by the media.

In December 2019, Boeing saw partial success as its Starliner CST-100 astronaut capsule made an uncrewed debut journey to space. While it failed to dock with the ISS, the spacecraft made a perfect landing on its return to Earth .

It was reported that it was a software glitch that prevented the spacecraft from reaching the space station, and an investigation by a NASA review panel later said the Starliner narrowly missed a "catastrophic” failure.

While Boeing had said the software bug was fixed while the Starliner was still in orbit, it could have "led to erroneous thruster firings" resulting in "a catastrophic spacecraft failure", a February 2020 Reuters report said, quoting NASA panel member Paul Hill.

Six months later, Boeing announced that it was planning the first crewed mission for Starliner in 2021.

Chris Ferguson was chosen as the chief astronaut for the crewed flight, but he stepped down in October 2020 citing priorities on the personal front. Butch Wilmore replaced him.

The launch of the Starliner crewed mission had since seen a series of postponements until it finally saw success, albeit partial, once again, on June 5. 

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Timeline Of Boeing Starliner Crewed Mission 

July 29, 2021: NASA postponedpostponed the Starliner launch after a mishap at the space station a day before the scheduled liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, pushing back the launch date to August first week.

August 2021: Boeing reported a valve issue as it announced another postponement, and sent the spacecraft back to the factory in Florida.

May 19-20, 2022: The Starliner capsule launched as an uncrewed test flight, and docked with the ISS for the first time.

August 2022: Boeing said it was now targeting early 2023 for the first crewed Starliner mission.

June 1, 2023: Boeing found two critical safety issues with the spacecraft, and hence postponed the mission planned for July 2023. The company had by then reported a total of $883 million in losses on its Starliner program, a Reuters report said citing regulatory filings. 

May 1, 2024: After a year's delay, NASA said Boeing was now ready to send the first crewed Starliner capsule into orbit on May 6.

May 6, 2024: The test flight was postponed as the countdown was halted with a fault detected on the Atlas V rocket. NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance cited a "faulty oxygen relief valve observation".

May 7, 2024: NASA said May 17 was being targetted as the next launch date.

May 14, 2024: Boeing said the Starliner’s propulsion system had an issue, and hence the launch would have to wait until May 21.

May 17, 2024: NASA and Boeing announced a further delay, targeting May 25, to "further assess a small helium leak in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft’s service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster".

May 22, 2024: June 1 was declared as the final date for the launch.

June 1, 2024: With minutes to go before liftoff, a computer-abort system automatically halted the launch attempt.

June 2, 2024: Boeing and NASA said the launch would take place on June 5.

June 5, 2024: The Starliner spacecraft was successfully launched with Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on board.

June 6, 2024: The first crewed test flight safely docked to the ISS, aiming a return on June 14.

June 11-14 2024: NASA and Boeing, citing weather problems and certain faulty components on the capsule that they were fixing, said the Starliner capsule was expected to return on June 18. They later said June 22 was the new targetted return date.

June 21-27, 2024: NASA announced postponement of the Starliner's return, saying its engineers along with a Boeing team were evaluating Starliner's propulsion system performance.

August 6, 2024: NASA said Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore could return aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon in February 2025 if Starliner was not found to be fit.

August 24, 2024: NASA announced that the Starliner spacecraft would be brought back to Earth uncrewed, with NASA chief Bill Nelson saying Williams and Wilmore would return aboard a SpaceX capsule early next year. On its part, Boeing said: “We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”