Boeing Crewed Flight Test

CFT will be the second mission for the Starliner Calypso capsule, which was first used on the first OFT mission. NASA announced that Boeing prepared to reassemble the vehicle for flight, following multiple checkouts, for the CFT mission in August 2020, and that new parachutes and airbags would be fitted. The CFT capsule's docking system was modified to accommodate the new re-entry cover that debuted on the OFT 2 test flight.

Nicole Aunapu Mann was initially assigned to this mission, which would have made her the first woman to fly on the maiden crewed flight of an orbital spacecraft, but was subsequently reassigned to the SpaceX Crew-5 mission as the first female commander of a NASA Commercial Crew Program launch. Due to medical reasons, Eric Boe, who was originally assigned to the mission in August 2018 as the pilot was replaced by Michael Fincke on 22 January 2019. Boe will replace Fincke as the assistant to the chief for commercial crew in the astronaut office at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson was originally assigned to the flight as commander, but he was replaced by NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore on 7 October 2020. Ferguson cited family reasons for the replacement. Matthew Dominick replaced him on the backup crew.

On 18 April 2022, NASA said that it had not finalized which of the cadre of Starliner astronauts, including Barry Wilmore, Michael Fincke, and Sunita Williams, will fly on this mission or the first operational Starliner mission. On 16 June 2022, NASA confirmed that this CFT mission will be a two-person flight test, consisting of Wilmore and Williams; Fincke is to train as the backup spacecraft test pilot and remains eligible for assignment to a future mission. Williams is expected to become the first woman to fly on the maiden crewed flight of an orbital spacecraft type (Judith Resnik was the first female crew member on the maiden flight of an orbital spacecraft, the Space Shuttle Discovery, followed by Kathryn Thornton on Endeavour, Shannon Walker on Crew Dragon Resilience, Kayla Barron on Endurance, and Samantha Cristoforetti and Jessica Watkins on Freedom).

The third launch of the Atlas V N22 variant will launch Starliner with a crew of two. The vehicle will dock with the International Space Station, and return to Earth under parachutes for a ground landing in the United States. The capsule, named Calypso, will approach the ground at approximately 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi), and will land on six inflatable air bags. The capsule has been refurbished for its second flight. It was originally flown on the first OFT mission for the Starliner capsule. A toy narwhal, coincidentally also named "Calypso", will be used by the crew as a zero gravity indicator, signaling when the craft has reached weightlessness.

This will be the first launch of a crewed spacecraft by an Atlas V launch vehicle. In addition, Boe-CFT will be the first launch of a crewed spacecraft utilizing a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles since Project Mercury in the early 1960s, and the first launch of a crewed spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station since that of Apollo 7 in October 1968.

Based upon current space station resources and scheduling needs, a short-duration mission with two astronaut test pilots is sufficient to meet all NASA and Boeing test objectives for CFT, which include demonstrating Starliner's ability to safely fly operational crewed missions to and from the space station. To protect against unforeseen events with crew transportation to and from the station, NASA may extend the duration of the CFT docking for up to six months.

• Commercial Crew Development
• SpaceX Dragon 2
• Crew Dragon Demo-2, SpaceX's first crewed mission of their capsule