NASA sets date for next Boeing Starliner launch An artist's impression showing the Boeing Starliner capsule in orbit Boeing Boeing Boeing/John Proferes NASA and Boeing have set a target date for the second launch of the Starliner spacecraft, which was designed – along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon – to return crewed launch capabilities to American soil. Back in 2010 NASA launched the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), an initiative that sought to facilitate the creation of new human-rated spacecraft that would end America’s reliance on Russia’s ageing Soyuz capsules to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Rather than opting to construct the capsules themselves, the CCP subsidized commercial entities such as SpaceX, Boeing and the Sierra Nevada Corporation