Boeing's new spaceship for NASA, called the CST-100 Starliner, completed its first uncrewed space mission, called the Orbital Flight Test, on December 21, 2019. But it suffered a critical timing error, which mean the ship failed to achieve its main objective of docking with the International Space Station. Mission control was able to remotely rescue the spacecraft after its launch, though.
Since Boeing has already successfully completed its in-flight abort test, next up is Starliner's first-ever crewed flight test.
"I think we're getting close. I think it's going to happen in the first part of next year," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said on December 7, according to Space News. But that was before the nail-biting rescue of Starliner.
Since the problematic mission, officials have declined to offer a timeline for the crewed flight. NASA may ask for a re-do of the uncrewed mission before allowing astronauts to fly the Starliner.