Crew-11 remains on NASA schedule

NASA’s current public schedule shows U.S. crew rotation missions to the International Space Station continuing even as Boeing’s Starliner program remains delayed. A May 1 NASA flight-plan update moved SpaceX Crew-13 up to mid-September 2026 and said launch opportunities for Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner-1 cargo mission were still under review. NASA tied those decisions to station operations, logistics and timing for upcoming flights. That matters because the open question around Crew-11 is really about whether NASA still has a place for additional SpaceX crew missions while Starliner remains off the board. The agency’s recent public updates indicate that it does. NASA’s Office of Inspector General said June 30 that Starliner was unlikely to obtain human-rating certification until 2027 at the earliest, extending the gap NASA has had to manage in its commercial crew rotation plan. ### How does NASA’s published schedule show SpaceX still covering crew rotations? NASA’s May 1, 2026 update said the agency and its partners were “adjusting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions” after reviewing the station flight schedule. In that same update, NASA said SpaceX Crew-13 was moving forward from November 2026 to mid-September 2026 “to help increase the frequency of U.S. crew rotation missions” to the station. (nasa.gov) That language is the clearest public sign that NASA is still using SpaceX missions to maintain cadence on station crew transport. The update did not list a new Starliner crew rotation. Instead, it said Starliner-1 remained under review while teams worked through technical issues discovered during Boeing’s 2024 Crew Flight Test and final actions from the Program Investigation Team report. (nasa.gov) ### Why is Starliner-1 no longer the near-term replacement mission? Boeing’s next Starliner flight is no longer positioned by NASA as an imminent crewed rotation. A Nov. 24, 2025 NASA contract update said NASA and Boeing were targeting no earlier than April 2026 for an uncrewed Starliner-1 flight, and only after certification and a successful Starliner-1 mission would Starliner fly up to three crew rotations to the station. (nasa.gov) NASA’s inspector general went further on June 30, 2026. The watchdog said Starliner would likely not obtain human-rating certification until 2027 at the earliest and said NASA had already spent an extra $17 million to accelerate SpaceX flights originally planned for Starliner. ### What went wrong on Boeing’s 2024 crew flight test? NASA released its Starliner Crew Flight Test investigation findings on Feb. 19, 2026. (nasa.gov) The agency said the spacecraft faced “challenges throughout its uncrewed and most recent crewed missions,” and Administrator Jared Isaacman said NASA was formally declaring the flight a Type A mishap. The June 5, 2024 test flight was originally planned as an eight-to-14-day mission but stretched to 93 days after propulsion-system anomalies were identified in orbit, NASA said. (oig.nasa.gov) The agency later returned Starliner without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who came home on SpaceX Crew-9 in March 2025. ### So where does Crew-11 fit in this reshuffled plan? (nasa.gov) NASA’s broader commercial crew posture shows SpaceX as the only provider currently flying regular astronaut rotations. The agency’s Commercial Crew Program page, updated Aug. 5, says the program provides transportation to and from the station through partnerships with private industry, while NASA’s mission archive lists Crew-11 as the 12th Dragon human spaceflight under that program. (nasa.gov) The practical effect is that any additional near-term U.S. crew rotation capacity has to come from SpaceX until Starliner is cleared. NASA has not published a fresh standalone Crew-11 scheduling notice in the material reviewed here, but its public updates show the agency continuing to reshape station traffic around SpaceX flights while Starliner-1 remains unresolved. That is consistent with outside reporting that Crew-11 remains on NASA’s schedule after the Starliner delays. (nasa.gov) ### What should readers watch next? NASA said on May 1 that it would “review operations and make future adjustments, as necessary” to support station needs, crew safety and science aboard the orbiting laboratory. The agency said updates would appear through its space station blog and Commercial Crew Program channels. Mid-September 2026 is the next named U.S. crew-rotation milestone on NASA’s published station plan, with SpaceX Crew-13 scheduled from Florida. (nasa.gov) Starliner-1’s earliest feasible launch window, NASA said, is still being assessed based on operational readiness and station traffic.