Boeing Chooses Starliner as New Name for CST-100

Boeing’s Chris Ferguson unveiled the new name for Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew capsule today during a ceremony inaugurating the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL.  The new name: CST-100 Starliner.

Ferguson is Boeing’s deputy manager of commercial crew operations and a former NASA astronaut who commanded the final space shuttle flight, STS-135, in 2011.  In revealing the name, he said the company wanted something that “gave a nod to the next generation of space and next 100 years of flight for Boeing.”  Boeing celebrates its centennial next year.  Ferguson did not mention it, but Boeing’s most recent airplane, the 787, is the Dreamliner.  Reaching back to the late 1930s, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner was the first commercial airplane with a pressurized cabin.

Notional illustration of Boeing CST-100 Starliner in orbit.  Clip from Boeing video
at Sept. 4, 2015 ceremony opening Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility
at Kennedy Space Center, FL.

Boeing is using the former Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) at KSC to process CST-100 Starliner.  OPF-3 was built for the space shuttle program, along with two others that also are now used by Boeing for the Department of Defense’s X-37B spaceplane program.

Boeing and SpaceX were selected by NASA last fall for the final phase of the commercial crew program, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP).   Boeing’s contract value is $4.2 billion and SpaceX’s is $2.6 billion.  For each company, the contract covers one demonstration flight, a guarantee of two operational flights, and possibly four more operational flights.  The commercial crew program is a public private partnership wherein both the government (NASA) and the companies share the development costs and the government agrees to purchase a certain amount of services.   How much each side is putting into development is not public, but estimates are that NASA is paying 80-90 percent of the development costs.   The overall goal is to restore America’s capability to launch people into space, which it lost when the space shuttle program was terminated in 2011.  All U.S. astronauts launched into space since that time have flown on Russian spacecraft.

Originally, NASA hoped commercial crew vehicles would be ready to fly in 2015, but that slipped to 2017.  NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden often states that congressional underfunding caused the slip and warns that additional delays could result if Congress does not provide the full $1.244 billion requested for FY2016.   Congress has never provided the full amount of funding NASA requested for commercial crew, although it came close for the current fiscal year (FY2015), appropriating $805 million compared to the $848 million requested.

Congress is still debating the FY2016 budget for all agencies, including NASA.   So far, it is not poised to fully fund commercial crew.  The House approved $1.0 billion and the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $900 million (the Senate has not voted on the bill yet).  

At the ceremony today, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) expressed optimism that the commercial crew program will get “the funding that it needs so that we can get our American astronauts flying on American vehicles.”   Nelson is the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that oversees NASA.   He flew on the space shuttle in 1986 when he was a Congressman.  Bolden was the pilot of that mission.

Bolden did not press the case for full funding today, instead focusing on the future not only of commercial crew and human spaceflight, but of KSC.  He praised KSC director Bob Cabana, another former astronaut, for transforming KSC into a multi-user spaceport after the end of the space shuttle program imperiled its future.  “Make no mistake, the road to space still blazes through Kennedy,” Bolden exclaimed.

Cabana himself expressed thanks to the State of Florida and commercial partners like Boeing and SpaceX for working with them to ensure KSC’s future.  “You can’t have progress, you can’t get better without change,” he said.

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) and Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli (R), who represents the district where KSC is located, were among the dignitaries who spoke at the event, along with the top leadership of Boeing and its space units:  President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg; Vice President and General Manager, Space Exploration, John Elbon, and Vice President and Program Manager, Commercial Programs, John Mulholland.

NASA ordered its first commercial crew rotation flight from Boeing in May, although whether Boeing or SpaceX will fly the very first such flight has not been decided yet.  Boeing will launch CST-100 Starliner on United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rockets.  ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.   SpaceX will launch its Crew Dragon on Falcon 9 rockets.  A Falcon 9 rocket failed on June 28.  It was intended to take a cargo version of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s commercial cargo program.   SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this week that it will be a “couple of months” yet before the rocket returns to flight.

Correction:  An earlier version of this article inadvertently used Spaceliner instead of Starliner in some cases.  The correct name is Starliner.