NASA and Boeing Outline New Milestones for Starliner’s Return to Crewed Missions

Image: Nasa starline. Source: www.nasa.org

NASA and Boeing are moving ahead with a new roadmap for the Starliner spacecraft, laying out plans for additional crewed missions and the certification of a new rocket that will eventually carry astronauts to low Earth orbit. The announcement, made Monday, underscores NASA’s goal of maintaining independent U.S. access to space as the agency prepares for the transition from the International Space Station to future commercial platforms.

According to NASA, engineers have spent months working with Boeing to address the issues that emerged during Starliner’s first crewed flight. In 2024, the spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew, leaving two astronauts stranded in orbit far longer than expected. Their mission, originally planned for eight days, stretched to an extraordinary 286 days before they were retrieved by another spacecraft.

The investigation into the incident produced 61 recommended fixes. NASA says those changes are already underway and will be evaluated during the next uncrewed Starliner flight, currently targeted for no later than January 2027.

The agency also confirmed it will certify United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket to replace the Atlas V for future Starliner launches. If the schedule holds, astronauts are expected to fly aboard Starliner again only with the Starliner‑2 mission, planned for 2028.