NASA failed to protect two astronauts during the debut Boeing Starliner astronaut flight that launched in 2024, senior agency management said Thursday.
“The most troubling failure…is not hardware. It is decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a livestreamed press conference.
“The agency failed [the astronauts],” added Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. (Both Isaacman and Kshatriya were not in their positions at the time of the flight.)
The NASA senior leaders also together pledged that the next uncrewed Starliner test— scheduled to launch in April—will only launch when ready, even if a delay is necessary.
A quick recap: NASA’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule launched two NASA astronauts—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—to the ISS. Starliner had serious thruster problems on two previous uncrewed tests, but Boeing and NASA said the craft was ready.
While Starliner was approaching the ISS on June 6, 2024, five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters didn’t work properly, though four were eventually resurrected to enable a safe docking.
After months of troubleshooting, NASA determined it could not fix Starliner in space, and returned the spacecraft uncrewed that September. Williams and Wilmore were switched to a SpaceX Crew Dragon for their return March 18, 2025, nine months after launch.
Boeing’s response: Boeing did its own detailed investigation, according to a 300-page CFT report released Thursday, which found programmatic and technical issues were either not known or resolved before the crew flight.
Boeing “has made substantial progress on corrective actions,” according to a statement released Thursday.
Sharing the blame: The report criticized NASA for its “hands-off approach” during Starliner’s development, and blamed Boeing for its oversight of systems engineering and subcontractors.
Altogether, the results were serious. The report notes CFT may qualify for the most serious “Type A” classification mishap at NASA. But given the astronauts did recover control of their spacecraft during ISS approach, the report says we could also call the flight a “high visibility close call.”
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