NASA has awarded Boeing a new contract worth $359 million as part of a revised plan for the company's Starliner spacecraft, according to The Motley Fool. The outlet reported that the arrangement amounts to a rescue of Boeing's space program, which has faced a series of setbacks.
Under the plan, NASA and Boeing have shared an update on commercial Starliner development, NASA announced. The agency says Starliner will not carry astronauts until 2028, and the spacecraft may need a different rocket, according to Space. NASA also plans an unpiloted Starliner test flight at the end of the year, Spaceflight Now reported.
CNN reported that NASA revealed a new plan for the spacecraft along with the commander of a future mission.
The reporting follows a difficult stretch for Starliner, which was developed under NASA's commercial crew program to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The revised schedule pushes crewed flights further out and adds an uncrewed test before astronauts fly again.
The $359 million contract figure and the 2028 crewed-flight timeline come from the outlets cited above; NASA has not released additional details in the material summarized here.
What to watch next: whether the unpiloted test flight at the end of the year proceeds as planned, and which rocket Starliner will use for future missions.
