Boeing plans to continue flying its Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years, according to its CEO, Kelly Ortberg. Ortberg took over as CEO last year and has focused on turning around Boeing's production woes, which were kicked off by quality control concerns. In an appearance on CNBC yesterday morning, he outlined that his firm was working with NASA to fix issues on the ship that ended up returning to Earth empty. Starliner's empty return forced NASA to send its crew, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, back to on SpaceX's Crew Dragon earlier this year.
Boeing Confident About Issues On Starliner & Has Clear Solutions To Solve Them
Ortberg's statement comes after NASA clarified late last month that it would move ahead with flying Starliner to the ISS with the crew after certifying it for the missions. The ship was originally planned to be certified after Wilmore and Williams returned on it last year, but their delay, coupled with the fact that it took NASA and Boeing months to only fail to determine the root cause of the ship's thruster failure, meant that the certification was delayed.
NASA's statement outlined that the agency, along with Boeing, had analyzed 70% of the 2024 flight's data and added that the anomalies identified would remain open until later this year before further tests were conducted. NASA also shared that its managers expected the next Starliner mission to be a flight capable of carrying crew that would follow after the ship's certification.
In his interview on CNBC yesterday morning, Ortberg was asked about the current status of Starliner. He confirmed that his firm was looking forward to "more missions on Starliner." Ortberg added that Boeing was "working with NASA to make the corrective actions" for the Starliner's thruster problems that led to a major loss of power as the ship tried to dock to the ISS.
The executive was optimistic about the work his firm was doing to fix the ship. "It's pretty straightforward engineering work," outlined Ortberg. We know what the problems were and we're making corrective actions so we'll hope to do a few more flights here you know in the coming years," he added.
Boeing's Starliner is one of two ships designed to ferry crew to and from the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). NASA hopes to operate the ISS by the end of 2030 at the very least, giving Boeing a handful of years to get its ship up and running and recoup the costs it has spent developing and overcoming its limitations.
When asked if Boeing was confident about solving the problems, Ortberg confidently stated, "Yeah, we are." He reiterated that the fixes were "pretty straightforward" and added, "I think we know what the issues are. And I think we have straightforward engineering solutions to those issues."
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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