Boeing Starliner-1

Boeing Starliner-1 is a planned cargo mission of the Boeing Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. It was to be the first operational crewed mission following the Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT). After the CFT mission encountered significant technical issues, NASA and Boeing restructured the program, and Starliner-1 will now fly as an uncrewed cargo mission. Launch was planned for no earlier than (NET) April 2026, but was then postponed indefinitely.

Starliner-1 was originally manifested as a crewed ISS rotation flight with several astronauts assigned and later reassigned due to program delays. In April 2022, NASA announced that it had not finalized crew placements among the Starliner astronaut cadre, including Barry Wilmore, Michael Fincke, and Sunita Williams. Williams and Wilmore were later assigned to the crewed CFT mission.

On September 30, 2022, Scott D. Tingle was named commander and Fincke as pilot. Fincke had previously served as a backup for CFT. On November 22, 2023, Joshua Kutryk was assigned as a mission specialist by the Canadian Space Agency. Kimiya Yui of JAXA was expected to occupy the remaining seat.

Multiple crew changes followed as delays accumulated. Williams, initially planned for Starliner-1, was reassigned to CFT. Jeanette Epps was added to Starliner-1 in 2020, but moved to SpaceX Crew-8 in 2023. Koichi Wakata joined the mission in May 2021, then transferred to SpaceX Crew-5 later that year.

On March 27, 2025, Fincke and Yui were reassigned to SpaceX Crew-11, and on November 4, 2025, Tingle became Chief of the Astronaut Office. On November 24, 2025, NASA announced that Starliner-1 would fly uncrewed, and Kutryk was removed from the flight. The first crew rotation mission is now expected to be Boeing Starliner-2 if certification is achieved.

Starliner-1 was expected to mark the first reuse of a Starliner spacecraft. The vehicle initially chosen was the capsule flown on the first uncrewed Boeing Orbital Flight Test in December 2019 and later named Calypso by Sunita Williams. After Calypso was reassigned to the crewed CFT mission, Boeing Starliner Spacecraft 2, which flew on Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2, was designated for Starliner-1.

The CFT mission revealed several technical issues, including concerns about the spacecraft's ability to safely return astronauts to Earth. NASA stated that a second crewed test flight may be required, which would further delay Starliner-1.

In July 2025, Steve Stich, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said the next Starliner flight would likely be an uncrewed cargo mission while engineers continued work on oxidizer-valve temperature-control issues that prevented reliable engine pulsing. Stich said NASA remained optimistic that a crewed Starliner flight could occur on the program's second available slot in late 2026.

However, an investigation report released in February 2026 retroactively classified the CFT as a Type A mishap, NASA's most severe failure category, typically reserved for missions involving loss of vehicle or life. The report cited hardware failures, qualification deficiencies, leadership errors, and organizational shortcomings that created risks inconsistent with NASA's human spaceflight safety standards. Administrator Jared Isaacman said that while the spacecraft has design and engineering deficiencies requiring correction, he was most troubled by the failures in decision-making and leadership at both NASA and Boeing. Steve Stich reported that the investigation was still ongoing and that Starliner-1 would not fly until the investigation was completed and any needed mitigations could be implemented.