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Boeing Starliner costs top $2 billion amid propulsion

issues

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Propulsion system issues may warrant additional Starliner

test

in space

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Starliner's first crew returned on SpaceX capsule on

Tuesday

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Boeing ( BA ) plans key Starliner ground test this summer

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SpaceX's Crew Dragon dominates NASA missions with 11

flights

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Boeing's ( BA )

troubled Starliner capsule that left two NASA astronauts on the

International Space Station last year may need to fly a third

uncrewed test flight before it carries astronauts again, agency

officials said as the spacecraft's first crew had to return to

Earth on a SpaceX capsule this week.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who rode

Boeing's ( BA ) crew capsule to the ISS last year, splashed down on

Tuesday in SpaceX's Dragon capsule amidst a lengthy effort by

Boeing ( BA ) to fix Starliner's faulty propulsion system, which had

caused their eight-day test mission to stretch into a nine-month

stay in space.

The technical issues on Starliner's debut crewed mission

were the latest setback - and most visible so far - in Boeing's ( BA )

thorny development of a spacecraft that has cost the aerospace

giant more than $2 billion. Starliner would compete with the

dominant Crew Dragon capsule from Elon Musk's SpaceX and provide

NASA a second U.S. ride to low-Earth orbit for its astronauts.

But before clinching a long-sought NASA certification for

routine flights, the craft may need an extra uncrewed test

mission that would be its fourth overall, after it flew two

uncrewed tests in 2019 and 2022.

"We're ... looking at some options for Starliner, should we

need to, of flying it uncrewed," Steve Stich, chief of NASA's

Commercial Crew Program that oversees Starliner development,

told reporters Tuesday night. "When we look forward, what we'd

like to do is that one flight, and then get into a crew rotation

flight."

"We'll kind of weigh all those things as we get the

testing and analysis behind us," Stich said.

Boeing ( BA ) did not return requests for comment.

Stich said Starliner's crewed flight last year checked off

some key testing milestones related to how astronauts command

and fly the vehicle. The purpose of an extra uncrewed test, he

said, would be to validate that its thrusters can perform as

designed in space, an environment impossible to simulate in

tests on Earth.

Starliner's first crewed mission was to be its final test

before it could begin routine astronaut flights for NASA, which

relies on SpaceX's Crew Dragon craft.

STARLINER'S COMPETITIVE FUTURE

Boeing ( BA ) is also eyeing Starliner as a taxi to and from

privately built space stations that are in early development -

the kind of non-government revenue that SpaceX has brought in

with fully private Dragon missions.

But Starliner's future was thrown into uncertainty when it

suffered five thruster failures during its flight to the ISS

last year, as well as leaks of helium that is used to pressurize

the thrusters. NASA made Starliner return to Earth without its

crew in September, deeming it too risky for astronauts to ride.

A NASA safety advisory panel in January said the agency and

Boeing ( BA ) were making "significant progress" in their post-flight

technical investigations but that the propulsion system issues

remain unresolved.

Stich said Boeing ( BA ) is planning a ground test this summer of

propulsion system components aimed at validating the company's

fixes.

On top of Boeing's ( BA ) $2 billion in Starliner charges since

2016, the ceiling of the company's fixed-price $4.2 billion NASA

contract for Starliner development and missions has grown by

$326 million since being awarded in 2014, according to a Reuters

analysis of contract data. The company has received half of that

so far during development, roughly $2.2 billion.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon meanwhile has flown 11 astronaut

missions for NASA, including a crewed test flight in 2020.

The total value of SpaceX's initial $3 billion NASA

contract, also awarded in 2014 and similar to Starliner, has

grown to nearly $5 billion, largely due to extra missions NASA

has added amid Starliner's development delays.