The US provided Boeing and SpaceX with funding to build a crewed space vehicle in 2014. Boeing received far more funding than SpaceX and it had far more experience, but the company still allocated fewer resources to the project than it needed to thrive. The company kept carrying technical debt forward so that additional work was lumped onto the final milestones. Other issues, such as the way the company was structured, cost fixation, siloed development, and a lack of proper testing, all worked together to kneecap the project.

Boeing is set to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on its Starliner spacecraft. The inaugural crewed flight is a crucial final test before NASA can authorize Boeing to conduct routine flights to and from the space station for the agency. This will be Boeing's first launch with humans aboard its spaceship. The astronauts will spend about a week at the space station before returning to Earth. While SpaceX has been ferrying astronauts to the ISS since 2020, NASA does not want to rely on a single company.

Boeing's Starliner crew capsule successfully blasted off on June 5 with two humans on board. The NASA-backed spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the International Space Station at 16:15 UTC today. Previous launch attempts fared badly and there were many issues during Starliner's development. A video of the launch is available in the article.

Boeing will return its Starliner capsule without the NASA astronauts that it delivered to orbit. The two astronauts will return via SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on a mission launching on September 24. They will stay at the International Space Station for about six more months before flying home in February. The test was originally intended to last about nine days. This decision was made due to NASA's commitment to safety - Starliner's crew flight test faced problems, most notably with its propulsion system. NASA officials still support Boeing and Starliner will likely be able to launch with a crew again someday.

NASA made the announcement that Boeing's Starliner would return uncrewed on August 24. Starliner is now scheduled to undock this Friday, with another window four days later if conditions are unfavorable. The decision took many weeks to make. While Boeing believed Starliner was capable of bringing back its crew, NASA was not comfortable with the idea due to uncertainty in the modeling. The astronauts will return home on a SpaceX Dragon vehicle in late February 2025 at the earliest.