Boeing will refly its passenger spacecraft for NASA without crew after flubbed debut launch

Boeing has decided to refly its new passenger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, for NASA this fall without a crew on board, three months after the vehicle’s debut launch to space went awry. The company hopes to complete all of the objectives the spacecraft was supposed to do on its inaugural flight — namely, docking with the International Space Station — paving the way for people to start flying on the vehicle.

“Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer,” Boeing said in a statement. “We will then proceed to the tremendous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station.”...

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