Boeing Starliner space capsule faces a shaky commercial future

Boeing’s space taxi is finally about to carry its first astronauts to orbit, after years of delays and a botched test flight. Its space capsule, the CST-100 Starliner, is scheduled to head to the International Space Station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket May 6. It will carry two NASA astronauts, making it the first crewed flight for the vehicle and ULA’s first launch with humans on board. The launch will be a closely watched test of quality control at Boeing, whose 737 Max models have been linked to some of the worst aircraft safety and design failures in recent aviation history. But even if Starliner performs flawlessly, it will be difficult to proclaim the program a success since it may only fly a half dozen more missions for NASA and never do much else. Boeing started developing Starliner in 2014 for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, designed to create new spacecraft to take astronauts to the ISS after the Space Shuttle program was canceled. NASA originally offered contracts worth up to $6.8b to Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to fly astronauts to the space station. The manufacturers could then use their spacecraft to generate additional profits from other customers, like space tourists.<br/>