{"id":683068,"date":"2026-06-04T03:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683068\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:10:13","slug":"nasas-next-starliner-flight-is-under-review-heres-whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683068\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s next Starliner flight is ‘under review.’ Here’s what’s going on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years since the now-infamous Starliner spacecraft<\/a> launched on its maiden crewed mission, Boeing’s troubled spacecraft could soon fly again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Starliner saga dominated headlines for months<\/a> after its June 2024 launch when issues with the spacecraft prolonged the stay of the two astronauts who crewed it at the International Space Station<\/a>. The developmental vehicle returned to Earth empty, while its crew remained behind at the orbital outpost before hitching a ride home in March 2025 with Boeing’s SpaceX competitor.<\/p>\n

Despite the botched mission, NASA has not yet given up hope on Boeing. Instead, the two entities have plowed ahead on plans to get the Starliner capsule off the ground once again as the U.S. space<\/a> agency looks to add a second commercial vehicle to its roster that can take astronauts to space.<\/p>\n

But next time, no humans will be aboard the Starliner when it’s launched from Florida bound for the ISS.<\/p>\n

NASA releases thousands more Artemis II photos. Here are the best.<\/p>\n

1 of 15<\/p>\n

NASA released thousands of new photos taken during the Artemis II mission around the moon. The astronauts selected for the mission thoroughly documented the 10-day voyage, which included an April 6 lunar flyby as they traveled more than a quarter-million miles from Earth.<\/p>\n

(Provided by NASA)<\/p>\n

While that mission was originally targeted for April, the timeline is now “under review,” according to NASA. Here’s everything to know about the Boeing Starliner, and when the spacecraft could launch on another NASA flight test.<\/p>\n

What is the Boeing Starliner spacecraft?\"Boeing\u2019s<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured July 3, 2024 docked to the Harmony module\u2019s forward port. This view is from a window on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft docked to the port adjacent to the Starliner.<\/p>\n

Designed and built by aerospace contractor Boeing, the Starliner spacecraft is being developed to ferry both astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The objective is for NASA to be able to certify Starliner as the second operational vehicle capable of reaching the ISS\u00a0before the station is retired by 2030<\/a>. The missions would be contracted under the U.S. space agency’s\u00a0commercial crew program<\/a>, under which NASA pays private companies to conduct orbital spaceflights using their own commercial vehicles.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has already been making routine trips since 2020 to the space station under the program using\u00a0its Dragon capsule. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though\u00a0most of the SpaceX Crew missions<\/a>\u00a0feature a contingent of four.<\/p>\n

Next uncrewed Starliner mission to ISS ‘under review’<\/p>\n

Even though the Starliner’s maiden crewed flight in June 2024 ended in failure, NASA has continued to work with Boeing<\/a> toward certifying the vehicle.<\/p>\n

NASA had previously announced that it had been working toward an April 2026 launch<\/a> of Starliner’s next test flight, a mission without a crew known as Starliner-1. But after April came and went without the vehicle getting off the ground, the agency is now indicating that the timeline for that mission is “under review<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Revising the target launch date became necessary as teams continue to make improvements to the vehicle, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

“The agency\u00a0is\u00a0assessing\u00a0operational readiness\u00a0and space station traffic\u00a0to\u00a0determine\u00a0the earliest\u00a0feasible\u00a0launch window,” NASA said in a May 1 blog post<\/a>. A NASA spokesman had no additional information to add when reached May 28 by the USA TODAY Network.<\/p>\n

When the mission does launch, NASA will forgo transporting astronauts and instead send the spacecraft to the International Space Station<\/a>\u00a0with nothing but cargo. The purpose, as NASA previously explained in November, is to conduct “in-flight validation of the system upgrades” implemented since the previous failed spaceflight.<\/p>\n

What happened with the last Boeing Starliner mission?<\/p>\n

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams rode to the space station in June 2024 aboard the Starliner, which hitched a ride atop the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n

Though the astronauts were expected to remain at the orbital laboratory for up to 10 days, issues with the Starliner spacecraft delayed their return. NASA ultimately decided to have the Starliner vehicle undock and return to Earth without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride.<\/p>\n

The pair of astronauts then returned in March 2025 on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, which had reached the space station in September 2024 with a mission known as Crew-9.<\/p>\n

2025 spaceflight in photos. See images of Blue Origin, SpaceX missions<\/p>\n

1 of 13<\/p>\n

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander captures its shadow on the moon’s surface after completing a successful landing March 2 near a volcanic feature on the moon called Mons Latreille. The vehicle became the first of two landers manufactured by a U.S. company to reach the moon is 2025 in crucial missions to lay the groundwork for NASA to return humans to the lunar surface in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

(Firefly Aerospace)NASA’s Jared Isaacman blasts Boeing, former leaders for mission failure<\/p>\n

In February 2026, NASA released a scathing report<\/a> lambasting not just the technical failures of Boeing’s spacecraft, but the “unprofessional behavior” leaders exhibited while debating how the troubled test mission should unfold.<\/p>\n

Jared Isaacman, NASA’s administrator, did not mince words when announcing the results of the report.<\/p>\n

“Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware,” Isaacman wrote in a letter to NASA employees, which he\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0in full on social media site X. “It is decision making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight.”<\/p>\n

Both NASA astronauts who crewed Starliner retire<\/p>\n

Wilmore and Williams have both since retired, making the botched Starliner mission their last as NASA astronauts.<\/p>\n

Wilmore was the first to retire<\/a> in August 2025. In a statement at the time reflecting on his 25-year career as a NASA astronaut, he said his time in space revealed to him that “the magnificence of the cosmos mirrored the glory of its creator in ways words can scarcely convey.”<\/p>\n

Williams then announced her retirement from NASA<\/a> in January 2026 after more than 27 years with the U.S. space agency. In a statement, she said, \u201canyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Boeing Starliner fly again? NASA says next mission ‘under review’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years since the now-infamous Starliner spacecraft launched on its maiden crewed mission, Boeing’s troubled spacecraft could soon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[16794,16795,297198,3631,718,144102,79,297197],"class_list":["post-683068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-boeing","tag-boeing-starliner","tag-crewed-mission","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-astronauts","tag-science","tag-starliner-spacecraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}