The Starliner’s mission to travel to the International Space Station already had been canceled mid-flight when an earlier glitch kept the spacecraft’s rocket engine from firing in time to put it on a path to rendezvous with the station. In 2018, NASA ordered safety reviews of both Boeing and SpaceX, the other company hired by NASA to fly crews to the space station. SpaceX charged NASA $5 million to perform its assessment; officials said Boeing was asking for as much as $25 million. But it also successfully completed its test flight to the space station without astronauts. Last month, its test of its in-flight abort system was also deemed a success, and the company now seems poised to fly crews to the space station within months.

Source: Washington Post February 06, 2020 23:48 UTC