NASA’s reliance on SpaceX for its upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025 reflects the growing confidence in the private space company as Boeing continues to face delays and challenges with its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. While SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has performed reliably, Boeing’s repeated setbacks have raised concerns about its ability to meet NASA’s requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner. Moreover, SpaceX’s recent success with its Starship test flights, particularly the fifth test flight, further highlights its technological edge over Boeing. This has sparked discussions about whether NASA should increase funding for SpaceX, given Boeing’s inability to deliver results despite receiving significant funding.
In an announcement on October 15, 2023, NASA confirmed that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon would be used for both the Crew-10 and Crew-11 missions to the ISS in 2025. The Crew-10 mission, scheduled for no earlier than February 2025, will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Takuya Onishi from Japan’s space agency JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. NASA has not yet revealed the crew for Crew-11, which is set to launch no earlier than July 2025.
Originally, NASA had hoped that Boeing’s Starliner would be ready to take over one of these missions. However, problems encountered during the Crew Flight Test (CFT) in mid-2023 have delayed the spacecraft’s certification. Boeing's Starliner program has been plagued by technical issues, including thruster problems and helium leaks, which have resulted in multiple delays. As a result, NASA pushed the Starliner-1 mission from February 2025 to August 2025, allowing SpaceX to move forward with its Crew-10 and Crew-11 missions.
NASA’s statement emphasized that the timing of Starliner’s next flight will depend on Boeing’s ability to resolve these ongoing issues and achieve system certification. The agency has not ruled out the possibility of another Starliner test flight before it is certified to carry astronauts to the ISS.
The Starliner program has faced significant challenges since its inception. Boeing was initially awarded a contract alongside SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to develop a spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS. While SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has successfully completed multiple missions, Boeing has struggled to bring its Starliner spacecraft to operational status.
The first major setback occurred in December 2019, when an uncrewed Starliner test flight failed to reach the ISS due to software issues. The spacecraft had to return to Earth prematurely, highlighting critical flaws in Boeing’s systems. Boeing attempted to address these problems, but subsequent tests revealed further issues.





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