Ammon News - NASA has officially launched plans to send Boeing's Starliner back into space - despite the pod creating an international scandal that stranded astronauts for months.

Following the successful return of astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore Tuesday, the space agency said its committed to using the beleaguered Starliner capsule.

NASA stressed the importance of having two launch systems. SpaceX is the other.

Starliner malfunctioned before and during the mission that took Williams and Wilmore to the International Space Station (ISS) in June, forcing NASA to deem it too risky for the return flight. The pair returned inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

It was Boeing's first Starliner flight carrying people to space, in a more than $4.5 billion project that has been plagued with delays, glitches, and billions of dollars in cost overruns.

Now, NASA said the plan is to conduct a second test flight and, if successful, move Starliner back into the rotation to launch astronauts to the (ISS).

Rudy Ridolfi, a US Air Force veteran and former Space System Commander, is one of several critics who feel NASA could be setting itself up for failure as the space agency doesn't want another failed Starliner mission.

Even more, Ridolfi questioned whether the aerospace giant will even be able to get back on track.

'Given Boeing's delayed history with Starliner schedules, the expectation that they can complete fixes and complete the additional test flight appears unlikely,' Ridolfi told DailyMail.com.