NASA is giving Boeing another opportunity to prove that its Starliner spacecraft is safe for future missions. The space agency is reviewing data from Starliner’s first crewed flight in June 2024 to decide when it can fly again. NASA expects the next flight to happen either later this year or in early 2026.
Starliner launched last year with NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore on board. The mission was supposed to last only eight days, but technical problems extended it to nine months. The astronauts finally returned to Earth on March 19, 2025, with help from SpaceX, another NASA partner.
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NASA and Boeing are now analyzing the postflight data to fix major problems, including thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that affected the spacecraft. In the coming months, both teams will run several tests to ensure Starliner is ready for future missions.
Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that once these tests are completed, they will decide the best time for Starliner’s next flight. He also mentioned that NASA will continue working on certifying the spacecraft before it can officially join ISS crew and cargo missions.
Boeing and SpaceX were both selected by NASA in 2014 to develop spacecraft to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). While SpaceX successfully sent astronauts in 2020, Boeing is still struggling to complete its first fully successful mission.
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So far, Boeing has launched three Starliner missions—two uncrewed and one crewed—but all had technical issues. The most recent flight had so many problems that NASA had to rely on SpaceX to safely bring the astronauts home. Boeing is now working to fix these issues and prove that Starliner is ready for future space missions.
