Boeing’s Starliner has not left the United States without a way to send astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon remains certified and operational. But Starliner is still uncertified, so NASA has not achieved the second U.S. crew-transport system it wanted as a backup. The agency’s current plan is an uncrewed Starliner evaluation flight in December 2026 or January 2027, with a crewed mission targeted for 2028 only after further testing and certification.
What happened on Starliner’s crew test
NASA’s Crew Flight Test launched in June 2024 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard. During Starliner’s approach to the station, NASA and Boeing observed helium leaks and reaction-control thrusters that did not perform as expected. NASA’s technical reviews could not eliminate enough uncertainty about the propulsion and helium systems in return scenarios, so the agency chose to bring the spacecraft back without its crew.
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Wilmore and Williams later returned to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission in February 2025. A planned short test flight had become a roughly nine-month stay at the station. NASA’s 2024 mission FAQ explained that the decision to return Starliner uncrewed reflected uncertainty about how its propulsion and helium systems would perform during the return, not a loss of the astronauts’ route home.
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The immediate issue is U.S. crew-transport redundancy to the ISS, not whether the United States can currently reach the station. NASA’s Commercial Crew program sought multiple U.S. systems so that a problem with one would not leave the agency dependent on it for continuous crew transport. With Starliner uncertified, Crew Dragon is the operational U.S. crew option in NASA’s current oversight record.
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NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) described dependence on a single launch provider and limited transportation options as ongoing challenges in its September 10, 2026 program overview. That is a genuine resilience problem: an issue affecting the sole operational U.S. crew system could constrain NASA’s ability to transport crews. It is not evidence that the United States has no current crew access to the ISS.
Where the two U.S. crew systems stand
| System | Certification and status | Demonstrated mission history | Current role |
|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX Crew Dragon | Certified in 2020; operational in the NASA OIG’s June 30, 2026 account | NASA OIG reported 12 crewed missions to and from the ISS by June 30, 2026 | The operating U.S. crew-transport option in the oversight record |
| Boeing Starliner | Uncertified in the NASA OIG’s June 30, 2026 account | NASA OIG said three flight tests had exposed significant unexpected issues | Awaiting an uncrewed evaluation flight and further testing before any crewed service |
The vehicles are therefore not currently interchangeable crew services. NASA’s OIG figures describe Crew Dragon’s flown missions and Starliner’s test history; they do not mean Starliner has completed a comparable record of operational crew rotations.
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What NASA plans to do next
Starliner-1: an uncrewed evaluation
In its September 28, 2026 update, NASA said Starliner-1 is planned as an uncrewed mission, with a possible launch window in December 2026 or January 2027. The flight is intended to validate spacecraft improvements, assess thermal performance, gather data for system qualification, and identify residual risk. It is a test and evaluation mission, not a crew rotation.
Starliner-2: a crewed target, not a guarantee
NASA’s current plan targets a crewed Starliner-2 by 2028, after corrective work, testing, and certification. The date is a target, not a confirmed launch date or proof that certification will be complete by then. NASA says the next flight will help establish performance and remaining risk before a crewed mission.
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Changes and qualification work
NASA says investigation findings linked reaction-control thruster performance problems to thrusters operating outside their engineering qualification, with the thermal environment and design features implicated. NASA has described service-module thermal modifications and a further valve design modification. NASA and Boeing have also described continued qualification work and other changes involving crew-module thrusters, batteries, and parachutes. Those steps are intended to address identified issues; NASA’s plan to collect flight data and assess residual risk shows that they are not, by themselves, evidence that every risk has been resolved.
What the corrective-action numbers do—and do not—show
NASA’s September 28 update said the Program Investigation Team identified 61 recommendations to NASA. Boeing’s update the same day reported that it had implemented corrective-action plans for eight Program Investigation Team recommendations and closed 19 of 21 Crew Flight Test in-flight anomalies. Boeing said the remaining anomalies were expected to close in October, and that some mitigations still needed to be demonstrated in flight.
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These counts describe different categories: NASA’s 61 recommendations to the agency are not the same set as Boeing’s eight recommendation action plans or the 21 flight-test anomalies. Boeing’s closure figures are the company’s status report, and its own account says some mitigations still await in-flight demonstration.
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Why the program’s delay matters to NASA
NASA OIG’s September 10, 2026 overview said the 2014 Commercial Crew contracts with SpaceX and Boeing exceeded $8 billion, excluding several billion dollars in additional resources invested by NASA and the companies. That figure describes the combined contracts, not the cost of Starliner alone. The oversight concern is not simply that one spacecraft has had a difficult test program: until a second U.S. system is certified and flying, NASA remains reliant on one operational U.S. provider for crew transport to the ISS.
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NASA has signaled that it intends to continue trying to establish Starliner as that second system. Its September 28 update said it plans to exercise options for fifth and sixth Starliner flights and to work with Boeing and United Launch Alliance on certifying Vulcan for crew transportation after Atlas V’s final flight. Those intentions point to a continued effort to preserve the program, but do not alter Starliner’s present uncertified status.
The practical verdict
Boeing’s Starliner program has failed to deliver NASA’s planned second U.S. crew route on the schedule implied by its original purpose. The consequence is reduced redundancy and greater dependence on Crew Dragon—not the loss of all U.S. access to space. Whether Starliner can become a safe, certified backup now depends on the corrective work, the uncrewed evaluation flight, and the certification decisions that follow.
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