Arthur McMiler
Boeing has appointed John Mulholland, its vice president and International Space Station program manager, to lead the company’s Starliner program, a company spokesperson told Reuters. Mulholland took over the role from Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, commercial crew program, who is retiring in February.
Before his ISS assignment in 2020, Mulholland led Boeing’s Starliner project from 2011as commercial crew program manager. He already served Boeing for over 13 years, including three years of service as the company’s space shuttle manager, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Propulsion System Challenge
The Starliner program is focused on the development of a spacecraft for transporting astronauts to the ISS under a $4.5 billion NASA contract. In June, a Starliner spacecraft and its crew docked at the ISS, joining the seven other astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory to assist with various space-based tests and scientific experiments.
Starliner, however, was unable to transport the crew on its flight back to Earth in September because of propulsion system problems. NASA is lining up SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to ferry back the stranded astronauts.
According to a Boeing spokesperson, the company and NASA have no plans yet on Starliner’s next mission.
