WASHINGTON — A year after the launch of a flawed crewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, NASA has yet to determine the next mission for the spacecraft with mixed signals about the vehicle’s future.
In a statement June 6, NASA said it was still studying options for the next flight of Starliner, expected no earlier than early 2026. That includes whether that next flight will be crewed or uncrewed.
“NASA is assessing the earliest potential for a Starliner flight to the International Space Station in early 2026, pending system certification and resolution of Starliner’s technical issues,” the agency stated. “The agency is still evaluating whether Starliner’s next flight will be in a crew or cargo configuration.”
The comments came a year to the day after Starliner docked with the ISS on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. That docking took place despite the failure of several thrusters that, for a time, put the ability of Starliner to safely dock in question. The problems with the thrusters, along with helium leaks detected in flight, led NASA to decide in August 2024 to return Starliner uncrewed, requiring NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to remain on the station until coming back on a Crew Dragon in March.
The latest statement from NASA is similar to what the agency said after the return of Wilmore and Williams in March. Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said NASA wanted to fly a test flight, with or without astronauts on board, to test changes to Starliner, followed by the first crew rotation mission, Starliner-1.
At that time, NASA said it was unlikely that test flight would launch before late this year, citing the schedule of visiting vehicles to the ISS. NASA also stated in March that it expected reviews of problems with Starliner’s thrusters to remain open for much of the year because of testing of those thrusters planned through the summer. “It is likely to be in the timeframe of late this calendar year or early next year for the next Starliner flight,” Stich said in a March 27 statement.
In April, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said NASA had not yet decided if the next Starliner mission would be crewed. That decision, the panel said, would likely be based on the outcome of thruster testing.
“NASA astronauts are training for a Starliner post-certification mission as the agency continues to review its forward plans and execute testing campaigns targeted throughout the spring and summer. However, the agency has not yet assigned a full Starliner-1 crew for focused training,” NASA said in its latest statement on Starliner.
NASA has relied on SpaceX for crew transportation for five years, but has continued to argue that it wants two operating commercial crew vehicles to provide redundancy should either experience a problem. The important of that redundancy was highlighted by a brief threat by SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk to “decommission” Dragon June 5 during a dispute with President Trump. While Musk quickly withdrew the threat, which may never have been serious, it demonstrated the reliance NASA has on SpaceX for ISS transportation.
However, budget pressures could force NASA to drop Starliner. The agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, released May 30, cuts ISS operating and transportation budgets by about 25%. “The budget will limit future vehicle changes and could impact NASA’s ability to maintain two crew transportation providers,” the budget document stated.
Boeing has said little about its plans for Starliner amid industry rumors that the company could walk away from the program after running up $2 billion in charges against earnings over the life of the program. Boeing executives have said little definitively about Starliner since the end of the CFT mission last summer, when officials declined to appear at NASA briefings about the return of the spacecraft.
In an interview with Aviation Week published May 29, Kelly Ortberg, who took over as chief executive of Boeing last August while the drama of the CFT mission was still playing out, suggested the program was weighing down the company’s work in space.
“I think some of the challenges we’ve had with Starliner have overshadowed our space portfolio,” he said, contrasting Starliner with the company’s work in national security space.
He indicated the future of Starliner and other Boeing space programs will depend on the outcome of budget debates in Congress in the months to come. “I think the manned space, commercial and NASA business is going to be dependent on where the budget goes and what the country wants to invest in those programs.”
