CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Months after Boeing’s astronaut spacecraft launched on its ill-fated first spaceflight, the private company said it will try again and repeat the same orbital test flight before flying NASA astronauts on board the CST-100 Starliner capsule.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched in December from Cape Canaveral on a ULA Atlas V rocket. The test flight was designed to prove the capsule’s ability to launch, dock at the International Space Station and return to Earth as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, however, due to several software bugs and a communication issue, the spacecraft was forced to return to Earth 48 hours after launch.