SpaceX is actively working on a plan to fly Starliner's crew home.

One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision. This probably will not happen until at least next week. It is likely that Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, will make the call.

Asked if it was now more likely than not that Starliner’s crew would return on Dragon, NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars on Thursday evening, " NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible. No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning."

  • @clothesEnglish
    16•1 month ago

    If NASA defers to its fallback plan, flying on Dragon, it may spell the end of the Starliner program. During the development and testing of Starliner, the company has already lost $1.6 billion. Reflying a crew test flight mission, which likely would be necessary should Starliner return autonomously, would cost much more.

    Through this lens, I get why they’re taking their time with the decision.

    • @jqubedEnglish
      14•1 month ago

      Even if they return the crew on Starliner I feel like this has gone badly enough to warrant another test flight.

      • threelonmusketeersMEnglish
        3•1 month ago

        another test flight

        On which rocket though? All of the remaining Atlas Vs have already been sold:

        • Six for the operational Starliner missions
        • Eight for Amazon Kuiper
        • One for ViaSat

        Boeing would either need to reduce the total number of operational Starliner missions, or ask one of the other customers to pretty please sell them an Atlas V launch. They could also pay to crew-rate Vulcan, but I doubt they would want to do that.

        • @jqubedEnglish
          1•1 month ago

          Most likely buy one of Amazon’s slots; that seems like it would be easiest to move to Vulcan, especially considering Blue Origin’s involvement in Vulcan. I had thought the plan always was to crew rate Vulcan, though.

          • threelonmusketeersMEnglish
            2•1 month ago

            Yeah, buying one of Amazon’s slots seems most likely.

            I’m under the impression that Vulcan will be crew-rated at some point, but I’m not sure that Boeing would want to foot the bill just for Starliner-6. Are there any crewed vehicles currently in development which are scheduled to fly on Vulcan? None come to mind. Crewed Dream Chaser still seems a long way off, but then again, so is Starliner-6.

            • @jqubedEnglish
              2•1 month ago

              I thought I’d seen something about it, I guess for Dream Chaser, but a quick look at Wikipedia the only reference I see for a human-rated Vulcan is a tweet from ULA CEO Tory Bruno in 2016 saying they intend to human-rate it. Of course, back then I think we all expected Starliner to be wildly successful beyond the base NASA mission requirements.