NASA Backs Boeing Starliner Fix With $359 Million, Crew Flights Slip to 2028

NASA is directing additional funding and support toward Boeing's Starliner capsule in an effort to return it to flight, following a 2024 test mission that left two astronauts aboard the International Space Station for nearly a year.

The agency has classified that mission as a "Type A mishap," its most severe category, reflecting the risk posed to the crew. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both now retired, returned to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle after nine months in orbit rather than on the capsule that carried them up.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Monday that Boeing should be prepared to send a new and improved Starliner to the station with cargo and no crew by December. Astronauts will not be assigned to the capsule until 2028, because further safety redesigns are expected to take months or years to finish.

Manager Dana Weigel said confidence that all of Starliner's problems have been resolved is a prerequisite for returning crews to the vehicle. The upgrades and new rocket certifications will cost NASA an additional $359 million, she said, and include new valves and seals among a series of fixes.

NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, who will command the next Starliner flight, described the path forward as sound and said he was humbled to follow Wilmore and Williams, calling them American heroes.

The agency has long sought two independent U.S. routes for ferrying astronauts to and from orbit, awarding billions of dollars to Boeing and SpaceX after the space shuttle program ended. SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts to orbit in 2020 and is preparing to launch its 14th crew for NASA later this week.

Boeing's path has been slower, with a pair of empty test flights preceding the crewed mission that ended with Wilmore and Williams riding home on a SpaceX Dragon. SpaceX plans to retire its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules within a few years and concentrate on the larger Starship, which reached orbit for the first time Monday.

That transition is part of why NASA remains committed to Starliner. The space station is scheduled to be abandoned and deorbited by 2031, and several private U.S. companies are developing orbital outposts that will need reliable taxi service. Starship is too large to dock at the station, and its manufacturer has set moon and Mars travel as its primary goals.

Asked why NASA does not abandon Starliner and seek another provider, Isaacman said the agency had always been committed to seeing the effort through with Boeing and was now on a good path.