---
title: "Boeing Is Now the Only Ride in Town, and It’s ‘Incredibly Excited’"
description: "With SpaceX’s Dragon heading for retirement, NASA has made the troubled Starliner capsule America’s sole astronaut taxi"
author: "Sterling Vance"
published: 2026-09-28T22:24:33Z
modified: 2026-09-29T03:23:53Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/boeing-is-now-the-only-ride-in-town-and-it-s-incredibly-exci-78064c
language: en
tags: ["boeing", "starliner", "space", "nasa", "spacex", "tech"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Boeing Is Now the Only Ride in Town, and It’s ‘Incredibly Excited’

*With SpaceX’s Dragon heading for retirement, NASA has made the troubled Starliner capsule America’s sole astronaut taxi*

By Sterling Vance · September 28, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/boeing-is-now-the-only-ride-in-town-and-it-s-incredibly-exci-78064c

## In brief

- NASA has made Boeing’s Starliner its only planned astronaut transport as SpaceX’s Dragon is expected to retire by or before 2030
- The agency rejected funding a new crew competition, citing billions in cost and demand of two seats every six to nine months
- NASA and Boeing agreed to roughly $90 million per seat for Starliner-2 through Starliner-6, with no 2030s pricing committed
- Starliner’s 2024 crew test ended with helium leaks and thruster failures; its astronauts returned on a SpaceX Dragon after 286 days
- An uncrewed Starliner test is planned for late this year; Starliner-2 could fly in mid-2028 under commander Woody Hoburg

Behold the strangest promotion in the annals of American aerospace... This week, NASA officials stood before the press and handed Boeing — Boeing, the company whose capsule has yet to complete a single flawless crewed flight — the keys to the entire kingdom: the role of *sole transporter of United States astronauts* to low-Earth orbit. And Boeing, which has spent two years being rescued, rerun and recertified, is not shy about it. The company is, by its own executive’s account, incredibly excited.

The logic, as NASA laid it out, is a narrowing funnel. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — the workhorse that has flown astronauts for years — is likely headed for retirement by or before 2030, and as Ars Technica [reported earlier this month](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/nasa-to-order-more-starliner-missions-and-help-certify-a-new-rocket-to-keep-it-flying/), SpaceX has repeatedly indicated those plans are ‘more than aspirational.’ Meanwhile NASA is weighing an extension of the International Space Station’s life to 2032 and backing a crop of private space stations, the so-called CLDs, or commercial LEO destinations. Somebody has to fly the astronauts, and by process of elimination, the somebody is Starliner.

Critics floated a different plan: fund a second crew competition, pit Boeing against Blue Origin’s under-development ‘space vehicle’ and perhaps smaller players like The Exploration Company. Administrator Jared Isaacman seemed reluctant at Monday’s news conference, according to Ars Technica, for the blunt reason that such an investment would likely cost billions. NASA’s future demand, he noted, shakes out to a mere two seats every six to nine months. The nation has already poured heavily into Boeing’s capsule, agency officials said, and with Starliner close to ready, it would be foolish to throw that considerable investment away.

> We’re incredibly excited about the partnership with NASA. To continue to fly to the International Space Station, and then obviously, with the Vulcan certification, missions beyond the current six that we have. Certainly, we have talked to all of the CLD providers about becoming their preferred transportation supplier in the future.

So said John Mulholland, Boeing’s vice president and program manager of Commercial Crew — Boeing, in other words, is already touring the private-station operators with its hat practically off its head, offering itself as *their* preferred ride, too.

Now — the fine print. All of this requires Boeing to execute, which it has yet to do. And there is the small matter of a monopoly: once Dragon exits, Starliner will, for a time at least, be the only game in orbit, and both NASA and the CLD operators know what monopoly prices look like. For Starliner-2 through Starliner-6, NASA and Boeing have agreed on approximately $90 million per seat. But this summer, as Boeing negotiated with the private station companies, it would not commit to seat prices for the 2030s. ‘We couldn’t provide detailed pricing to the CLD suppliers as the Vulcan rocket has not been certified, and the spacecraft has not been certified, and we don’t have detailed pricing on the Vulcan,’ Mulholland said. ‘That will come in the future, and obviously we want to be as competitive as possible.’ Boeing, competing against... Boeing.

Skeptics have their reasons, and the reasons have names: Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. In the summer of 2024, Starliner’s crewed test flight ran into helium leaks and thruster failures on approach to the station; NASA judged the capsule too risky to bring its own crew home, and as [CBS News recounts](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-boeing-starliner-unpiloted-test-flight/), the capsule returned empty while the astronauts finally rode back — aboard a SpaceX Dragon — 286 days after launch. The rival’s rocket, rescuing Boeing’s crew: that is the image Starliner carries into its new monopoly.

The road back runs through an uncrewed test flight NASA plans for late this year, per [Spaceflight Now](https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/09/29/nasa-plans-unpiloted-starliner-test-flight-at-end-of-year/). The first operational crewed mission, Starliner-2, could fly in mid-2028, and NASA said Monday that veteran astronaut Woody Hoburg will command it, according to [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/boeing-incredibly-excited-to-serve-as-nations-only-astronaut-transportation/).

So the wager is placed. The United States, which once paid Russia for seats, will soon pay Boeing — exclusively — at roughly $90 million a head, on a rocket not yet certified, in a capsule not yet certified, for a future of two souls every six to nine months. If the capsule flies true, it will read as thrift. If not... well, the backup plan just announced it is retiring.