When we last checked in on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in February, NASA was announcing that it had formally classified the 2024 crewed flight of the Starliner spacecraft as a “Type A” mishap, an acknowledgement that the test flight was a serious failure.

At the time, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the space agency was working with Boeing to “fully understand the risks associated” with the Starliner spacecraft, and to remediate them. Starliner would not fly its next mission, a cargo flight to the International Space Station, until those problems were identified and remediated. He declined to put a date on the test flight.

However, it now appears this work is proceeding apace.

“Going quite well”

During a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg offered some encouraging remarks in response to an analyst’s question about Starliner and other space projects at the company.

“The redesign of the Starliner deficiencies is going quite well, and we’re feeling pretty good about that,” Ortberg said.

The deficiencies he referred to primarily involve the vehicle’s propulsion system, which imperiled the flight of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams to the International Space Station during Starliner’s first crewed mission. The astronauts had to be returned to Earth on a Crew Dragon vehicle in early 2025.

During the earnings call Ortberg suggested much of that work was completed, and that the primary issue now is scheduling a launch date with NASA for Starliner to ferry cargo to the space station to ensure there was an open docking port and astronaut time to unload the vehicle.