CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing’s new Starliner capsule went off course Friday during its first test flight, spoiling a crucial dress rehearsal for launching astronauts next year.

The capsule will stay in orbit for a few days but won’t dock with the International Space Station as planned. It will return to Earth as early as Sunday, landing in the New Mexico dessert.

Friday’s blastoff from Cape Canaveral went flawlessly as the Atlas V rocket lifted off with the Starliner capsule just before sunrise this morning. But a half-hour into the flight, Boeing reported that the capsule didn’t get into the right orbit.

Officials said the spacecraft’s timer didn’t work properly and it burned up too much fuel to safely make the trip to the space station.

This was Boeing’s chance to catch up with SpaceX, NASA’s other commercial crew provider that successfully completed a similar demonstration last March. SpaceX has one last hurdle — a launch abort test — before carrying two NASA astronauts in its Dragon capsule, possibly by spring.