Enlarge / A Starliner spacecraft mounted on an Atlas V rocket before an unmanned test flight in 2022. (Source: Boeing)
Next month marks 10 years since NASA announced that Boeing, one of the agency's most experienced contractors, had received the lion's share of government money to end the agency's sole reliance on Russia to transport its astronauts to low-Earth orbit and back.
At the time, Boeing received $4.2 billion from NASA to complete development of the Starliner spacecraft and conduct at least two and possibly up to six operational flights to shuttle crews between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX received a $2.6 billion contract for essentially the same scope of work.
A decade later, the Starliner program is at a crossroads after Boeing learned it will not conduct the spacecraft's first crewed flight test with astronauts on board. NASA officially decided Saturday that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who launched on the Starliner capsule on June 5, will instead return to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Simply put, NASA does not have enough confidence in Boeing's spacecraft after it experienced multiple engine failures and helium leaks en route to the ISS.
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