So this is a bit tangential to SpaceX, but somewhat related so posting it anyway.
With CFT set for March earliest (and who knows when it’ll actually happen?) we’ll see SpaceX fly Crew-8 and Crew-9 as well, before Starliners first operational mission in Spring 2025, if all goes as scheduled from now on…
Good chance we’ll see 6 private Dragon capsule missions (Axiom1-4, Jared’s first 2 flights) before we see Starliner with crew
Has 2025 for Starliner-1 been confirmed anywhere? I think it’s right, but I don’t think they officially said so.
They seemed noncommittal about timing and made it sound like Starliner-1 could still be late 2024, but that feels impossible. If Crew 8 is Feb-Aug '24 and Starliner CFT-2 is NET March '24, during Crew-8, then Crew-9 would have to be on a Dragon to give enough time to turn around Starliner certification and get the next capsule ready.
Here’s a link that isn’t paywalled:
https://spacenews.com/first-starliner-crewed-flight-delayed-to-2024/
It came out after the press conference today, too, so it might have more info (idk, I can’t read the Bloomberg one).
Thank you
Better late than never I guess. The fixed price contract ended up being a boon for NASA as they weren’t affected by the massive over-run on cost.
