Cargo, not astronauts, will ride on the next Boeing Starliner to leave the launch pad. NASA and Boeing said on September 28, 2026 that the Starliner-1 mission is uncrewed and carries a potential launch date of December 2026 or January 2027. It will be the capsule’s first flight since the 2024 crewed test that ended with the spacecraft returning empty.
The wording in NASA’s announcement is deliberate: the window is described as potential, and the flight is framed as a test of the spacecraft rather than a routine delivery.
Starliner-1’s December and January window
NASA’s announcement of the update labels Starliner-1 an uncrewed engineering evaluation mission. Its stated purposes are to validate the spacecraft’s improvements, verify the improved thermal environment, obtain the performance data needed to qualify systems, and identify residual risk ahead of crewed missions. Boeing’s Starliner-1 page quotes the agencies as saying the uncrewed mission will carry cargo to the International Space Station in the December 2026 and January 2027 timeframe, and notes that as of July 2026 the Starliner-1 spacecraft was being tested at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpacePolicyOnline words the same plan as an uncrewed cargo test no earlier than December 2026, which is the more cautious reading of an identical schedule.
No source read for this report states how much cargo the flight will carry or which ISS port it will use.
Thruster valves and thermal fixes on the test list
The flight exists to prove repairs. Boeing’s description of the contract update lists valve replacements on all 12 crew module reaction control thrusters, corrosion prevention measures, redesigned poppets in the service module thrusters, enhanced pressure monitoring, parachute joint improvements and upgraded batteries. It also says the teams have closed 19 of the 21 in-flight anomalies from the 2024 crew flight test, with the remaining items expected to close in October, a milestone that sits directly ahead of the launch window.
The cause NASA assigned is specific: service module reaction control thrusters operated outside engineering qualification parameters, from a combination of factors including the thermal environment and features inherent in their design. Starliner-1 is where the thermal changes meet space, and a flight without people lets engineers collect data on those thrusters while nobody is on board if they misbehave again. NASA’s release also sequences the work: after the flight, Boeing will complete the service module thruster valve design modification, install new crew module thrusters and batteries, and make minor parachute system modifications, which means some of the fixes meant for the crewed vehicle follow this test rather than precede it. Military & Aerospace Electronics summarizes the aim as validating modifications, evaluating the improved thermal environment and obtaining propulsion-system data needed for qualification.
Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said in the release that with the safety of the station crew and the public as the highest priority, NASA will test Starliner’s propulsion system through targeted demonstration objectives and disciplined operational controls. John Mulholland, Boeing’s vice president of the Starliner program, said in Boeing’s account that corrective action plans address all eight recommendations in the program’s investigation report and that Boeing is confident the Starliner vehicle will be ready for flight. The release is explicit that the flight is a way of finding residual risk, not a declaration that none remains.
Atlas V, Vulcan and the flight after Starliner-1
Houston Public Media reports that Starliner-1 will launch on an Atlas V and dock with the space station. The NASA release says the agency will work with Boeing and United Launch Alliance to certify the Vulcan rocket for crew transport after the Atlas V’s final flight, so the crewed mission that follows, as the contract modification frames it, depends on a second launch vehicle clearing its own review as well as on how the capsule performs. Boeing’s contract summary lists the goal in its own words as certifying Vulcan for human spaceflight to support flights after the Atlas fleet is phased out, and neither NASA nor Boeing gives a date for that final Atlas V launch.
That crewed mission, Starliner-2, carries a target return by 2028 in the same announcement. BGR, summarizing the plan, called the uncrewed flight the big change from earlier schedules because it lets the teams verify that technical problems are resolved without risking astronauts. In 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams went up on Starliner for what was planned as a short test and came home on a SpaceX capsule after NASA judged the spacecraft’s thrusters and helium system unsafe for the return; Starliner itself flew back without them.
Two months, December and January, and one qualifier, potential, are what NASA’s September 28 announcement commits to for Starliner-1, and the release repeats that qualifier rather than a firm date.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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