Boeing and NASA have announced plans to return the Starliner spacecraft to flight operations, with an uncrewed mission scheduled for December 2026 or January 2027, followed by a crewed mission in 2028. This move is significant because it would provide the United States with an alternative to SpaceX's Crew Dragon for transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), particularly as the Crew Dragon programme approaches its end around 2028 and commercial space stations emerge.

Despite receiving a contract in 2014, Starliner has completed only one crewed mission, which ended in 2024 with the spacecraft returning empty after technical failures deemed it unsafe for the crew to remain aboard. The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, remained on the ISS for months before returning on a SpaceX mission. Boeing has addressed 19 of 21 anomalies identified during the test flight, with fixes including replacement of reaction control thrusters, parachute improvements, and upgraded battery systems. NASA reduced the original six-mission contract to four missions in 2025, though it is now exercising options for two additional flights and seeks certification of the Vulcan rocket to replace the Atlas V launcher.