Boeing Starliner Could Brick ISS Docking Port If Crew Abandons It

Photo: NASA / Frank Michaux

NASA is contemplating bringing astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams home from the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon and flying the Boeing Starliner back empty. There’s just one problem: Boeing removed the Starliner’s autonomous undocking feature from its software. The aerospace manufacturer wants to push a software update to the spacecraft in orbit, but NASA fears it could do more damage.

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It’s been over two months since the Boeing Crew Flight Test launched from Cape Canaveral. Multiple technical issues with the Boeing Starliner have drastically elongated the eight-day mission, with no return date in sight. NASA planned to decide whether the crew should fly the spacecraft back last week.

NASA not only delayed its decision on the Starliner but also the launch date for the upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The launch date could be shifted back from August 18 to September 24. The mission could be conducted with two astronauts instead of four, leaving two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams to get a ride back to Earth. Ars Technica dug into the reasoning behind the potential delay:

The Crew 9 delay is relevant to the Starliner dilemma for a couple of reasons. One, it gives NASA more time to determine the flight-worthiness of Starliner. However, there is also another surprising reason for the delay—the need to update Starliner’s flight software. Three separate, well-placed sources have confirmed to Ars that the current flight software on board Starliner cannot perform an automated undocking from the space station and entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

At first blush, this seems absurd. After all, Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test 2 mission in May 2022 was a fully automated test of the Starliner vehicle. During this mission, the spacecraft flew up to the space station without crew on board and then returned to Earth six days later. Although the 2022 flight test was completed by a different Starliner vehicle, it clearly demonstrated the ability of the program’s flight software to autonomously dock and return to Earth. Boeing did not respond to a media query about why this capability was removed for the crew flight test.

NASA fears that Boeing’s software update could brick one of the two crewed-vehicle docking ports on the ISS. If the space agency decided to autonomously return the Starliner to Earth, it must be absolutely certain that it wouldn’t render the port inoperable. It should be noted that the root cause behind the Starliner thruster failures has yet to be found.