MOSCOW, July 22 Scandal related to Boeing's concealment of information about problems with 737 MAX aircraft , suggests that the real reason for the delay of the Starliner spacecraft on the ISS is also being hushed up; most likely, the astronauts will be returned to Earth on another device due to high risks, said Nathan Eismont, a leading researcher at the Institute of Space Research (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
NASA has previously extended the mission several times for astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who were first carried to the International Space Station by Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft. According to media reports, problems with some of the maneuvering engines and helium leaks are being recorded on the ship. 
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“Even with the best attitude towards Boeing, if we observe recent events of this kind, when they clearly tried to somehow hide the matter from specialists and just from people, then, of course, one inevitably begins to think whether this is not a repetition of the Starliner scenario in a different way “This is alarming, to put it mildly. Of course, no one likes to demonstrate some of their mistakes, but to the extent that Boeing did, it’s somehow over the top,” Eismont said.
He believes that Boeing has reason to hush up the problem, since the unsuccessful completion of the Starliner mission could cause serious reputational and economic damage to the company.
“In any case, the time when one can expect that somehow it will be possible to figure it out has clearly passed… The risks here are so great that it is unlikely that those who make the decision will allow (the return of astronauts to Earth on the Starliner ship — ed.) «, the scientist added.
Previously, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud in the case of the crashes of two aircraft of its production in 2018-2019. In 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX plane crashed in Ethiopia, and in 2019 in Indonesia, two crashes killed about a thousand people. In 2021, as part of the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the concern, it agreed to pay $2.5 billion, admitting charges of “conspiracy” to mislead regulators about problems with the equipment.
The spacecraft, created by Boeing under a contract with NASA, set off on its first manned flight on June 5, 2024. After about 26 hours, he arrived at the ISS, and, despite technical problems, successfully docked to it. Starliner's mission to the station was originally scheduled to last about a week, but NASA extended the mission several times. At the moment, the date for the astronauts' return to Earth has not been determined. NASA and Boeing have said they are considering mid-August as the latest possible date for the spacecraft's return to Earth.