Boeing’s next Starliner spacecraft to fly won’t carry NASA astronauts when it launches in April 2026

Authors: Tariq Malik

Publisher:

Space.com

Published: 11/25/2025

Language:English

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Elon

Good morning thejunkmonger, I'm Elon, and this is Goose Pod for you. Today is Monday, December 08th.

Taylor

And I'm Taylor. Today, we're diving into a story of high-stakes engineering and shifting timelines: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft won’t be carrying astronauts on its next flight.

Elon

That’s right. The next launch, scheduled for April 2026, has been downgraded to a cargo-only mission. It’s a direct consequence of the failures during its first crewed test flight back in 2024. They simply can't trust the hardware yet.

Taylor

It’s such a dramatic turn in the story! That mission was supposed to be a triumph, but it ended with two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, getting stranded on the International Space Station. What was meant to be a short trip turned into a nine-month saga.

Elon

Stranded is the right word. The thruster system on the Starliner had serious issues, multiple helium leaks. NASA deemed it unsafe for re-entry. They had to call for a rescue mission, essentially. The astronauts came home on a SpaceX Dragon. The irony is staggering.

Taylor

It really is. And now, the fallout is a major contract change. NASA is only guaranteeing four of the six crewed missions they originally contracted Boeing for. The last two are just "options" now. It's a huge narrative shift from "trusted partner" to "prove it to us."

Elon

They have to prove it. The focus now is on endless testing of the propulsion system. Steve Stich from NASA said they need to "focus on safely certifying the system in 2026." You don't say that unless you have fundamental doubts about the design's integrity.

Taylor

Exactly. This 2026 cargo flight is the new test. It's Boeing's one shot to show they've fixed the flaws before NASA even considers putting astronauts back in that capsule. The whole storyline of America's return to space has this unexpected, complicated chapter now.

Elon

This whole situation is a predictable outcome of a flawed process. The Commercial Crew Program started in 2011. The goal was simple: stop relying on Russian Soyuz rockets. NASA paid private companies to build their own taxis to orbit. A sound, market-based idea.

Taylor

It was a brilliant strategic pivot for NASA! Instead of managing every bolt, they’d act as a customer. They awarded contracts in 2014, with Boeing getting a massive $4.2 billion deal. The story was supposed to be about two American champions, Boeing and SpaceX, creating a robust new space age.

Elon

But one champion sprinted ahead while the other stumbled repeatedly. Starliner's first crewed flight was supposed to be in 2017. It's almost a decade late. They had a failed uncrewed test in 2019 due to basic software errors—a "high-visibility close call," as NASA put it.

Taylor

And that set the stage for this whole cascading series of delays. They had to fly a second uncrewed mission in 2022 just to prove the concept worked. Then came the 2024 crewed test, which, instead of being the grand finale, revealed even deeper hardware problems with the helium leaks and thrusters.

Elon

It's a financial black hole for Boeing. This is a fixed-price contract. Every delay, every failed valve, every line of bad code comes out of their pocket. They've lost nearly two billion dollars on this program. It’s a case study in how not to manage a complex engineering project.

Taylor

Their new CEO even admitted they signed up for problematic contracts, which is an understatement. But he also said they can't just walk away. NASA is a core customer. So, they're trapped in this narrative they created, a story of falling behind while their competitor redefines the entire industry.

Elon

It's not just about falling behind. It's about a fundamental difference in approach. You must build, test, fail, and iterate at lightning speed. Boeing seems stuck in a cycle of analysis, delay, and more analysis. And the result is a spacecraft that can't safely bring its own crew home.

Taylor

That's the perfect summary of this chapter in the story. It's a tale of two very different philosophies, and right now, the fast-moving, iterative approach is winning, while the legacy approach is costing billions and creating massive headaches for NASA. The pressure has to be absolutely immense.

Elon

The core conflict here is competence versus legacy. Boeing is an aerospace giant, but they were utterly humiliated by SpaceX, a relative newcomer. They couldn't get a capsule to work reliably, while SpaceX has been flying astronauts routinely since 2020. It's a brutal, embarrassing comparison for them.

Taylor

And think about the human drama of it! Astronauts Wilmore and Williams packed for an eight-day trip. They ended up staying for nine months. Their mission became a waiting game, entirely because the vehicle that took them there was deemed unsafe for the return journey. That's unbelievable.

Elon

The machine failed them. For an astronaut, that’s the ultimate betrayal of trust. NASA had to make the embarrassing call to send the Starliner capsule home empty and wait for a SpaceX ride-share. It’s a massive blow to Boeing’s reputation in human spaceflight, and it should be.

Taylor

It creates such a tense dynamic for NASA. Publicly, they need to support Boeing because their entire strategy for accessing the space station relies on having two independent providers. Redundancy is key. They don't want a single point of failure, which is what they have right now with only SpaceX.

Elon

But privately, they must be furious. The program is billions over budget and years behind schedule. Now NASA has to publicly renegotiate the contract, cutting the number of guaranteed flights. It signals a major loss of confidence. They're basically saying, "We can't count on you to deliver."

Taylor

And inside Boeing, the conflict is palpable. The new CEO inherits this mess. He's talking about cutting losses and avoiding these kinds of fixed-price deals in the future, but as he said, they can't just abandon a core customer. They are committed, but the commitment is costing them dearly.

Elon

The immediate impact is that NASA is now, for the foreseeable future, solely dependent on SpaceX for crewed missions. The exact scenario the Commercial Crew Program was designed to avoid. The goal was redundancy, and that goal has failed, at least for now. Competition is critical.

Taylor

It’s a huge reputational hit for Boeing. For a company that prides itself on its century-long history of aviation and space engineering, this is a very public and embarrassing chapter. Shareholders are feeling it, too. This isn't just a setback; it fundamentally damages their brand identity.

Elon

The contract modification is the tangible result. Starliner has to pass an uncrewed cargo test in 2026 before they even think about putting people in it again. If that goes well, they might get three crewed flights. It’s a probationary period, not a partnership of equals.

Taylor

And the clock is ticking on the whole story. The International Space Station is set to be decommissioned around 2030. So, even if Starliner gets certified and flies its few missions, its window of relevance for the ISS is rapidly closing. It's a high-stakes race against time.

Elon

It raises fundamental questions about Boeing's space division. Can they compete in this new era? Or are they too slow, too bureaucratic to keep up? This isn't just about one capsule; it's a test of their ability to innovate and execute in the modern space race. It's not looking good.

Elon

The future is simple: Starliner is grounded until 2026, at a minimum. Everything hinges on that cargo mission. If they can't get an uncrewed flight right after all this time and money, the program is effectively over. It's a single point of failure for the entire project.

Taylor

It’s the ultimate cliffhanger for this part of the space story. Can the legacy hero redeem itself? Boeing has to prove it can solve these fundamental propulsion issues. The narrative from NASA is all about rigorous testing and certification, which is code for "we don't trust it yet."

Elon

Beyond the ISS, the business case is weak. They talk about serving private space stations, but that market is still speculative. Committing billions more to a vehicle for a non-existent market is a tough sell, especially after losing so much already. Their strategy is reactive, not visionary.

Elon

So that’s the story. Boeing's Starliner is struggling, bogged down by delays and critical failures, while its competitor reshapes the industry. It's a stark lesson in modern engineering.

Taylor

That's the end of today's discussion. Thank you for listening to Goose Pod. See you tomorrow.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft faces a significant setback. Its next April 2026 launch will be cargo-only due to critical thruster and helium leak failures on its first crewed flight. NASA has reduced guaranteed missions, demanding extensive testing to regain confidence in Starliner's safety before astronauts return.

Read original at Space.com →

A Boeing Starliner spacecraft approaches the International Space Station during a test flight. (Image credit: NASA) Over a decade ago, NASA picked Boeing to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station, agreeing to pay billions of dollars for up to a half-dozen crewed flights. Some of those flights, it turns out, may not happen, and the next Starliner to fly won't carry any astronauts at all.

NASA on Monday (Nov. 24) announced that Boeing's next Starliner mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will carry only cargo and supplies, and no crew. It will launch no earlier than April 2026, the agency said in a statement.NASA and Boeing also agreed to reduce the number of crewed flights to the space station by Starliner by at least two missions.

That means that instead of the up to six Starliner crew rotation flights Boeing agreed to fly for NASA under a $4.2 billion contract set in 2014, the company will only have to fly up to four missions, with "the remaining two available as options," NASA said.The news comes as Boeing works to resume Starliner crew flights after its beleaguered Crew Flight Test 1.

That mission launched two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — to the International Space Station (ISS) on the first crewed Starliner in 2024, only to return to Earth without them due to thruster system concerns.Wilmore and Williams originally planned to spend 10 days in space, but eventually spent more than nine months in orbit while waiting for a ride home on a Dragon spacecraft built by Boeing's competitor SpaceX.

(SpaceX has its own multi-billion dollar contract to fly NASA astronauts to and from the ISS, and has done so regularly since 2020.) The Starliner astronauts returned to Earth in March 2025, more than six months after the Starliner capsule landed on its own in September 2024. Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test launches (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)Since Starliner's landing, Boeing engineers have worked to address thruster system issues in order to begin operational crewed flights under its NASA contract.

The delays for crewed Starliner flights followed years of delays after the company's first uncrewed Starliner test flight failed to meet up with the ISS as planned in December 2019, which ultimately led to a second uncrewed test in May 2022 ahead of the star-crossed crewed test flight in 2024.Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!"

NASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year," Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said in the statement on Monday. "This modification allows NASA and Boeing to focus on safely certifying the system in 2026, execute Starliner’s first crew rotation when ready, and align our ongoing flight planning for future Starliner missions based on station's operational needs through 2030."

NASA currently plans to retire the International Space Station in 2030, marking the end of what will by then be 30 years of continuous crewed operations. The 450-ton space station will be commanded to deorbit and burn up over the Pacific Ocean. Huge pieces of it are expected to survive long enough to plunge into a watery grave known as Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard in the Pacific.

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach.

He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network.

To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.

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