NASA on Thursday released the results of its investigation into Boeing’s bungled 2024 flight to the International Space Station, which stranded two astronauts there for months.The findings were damning for both Boeing and NASA, describing inadequate testing, breakdowns in communication and leadership failings on both sides.The report classified the events as a “Type A mishap” — NASA’s most severe designation, reserved for incidents that result in significant financial loss or serious risk to the crew, including possible death. The loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003 got the same designation.AdvertisementAdvertisement“We returned the crew safely, but the path we took did not reflect NASA at our best,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Thursday at a news briefing, adding that the incident created a “culture of mistrust.” Isaacman, who was sworn in in December, did not lead the agency when the mishap occurred.The Starliner mission was meant to last roughly eight days and demonstrate that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was ready to begin shuttling NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. On what was considered a test flight, it launched in June 2024 carrying two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.Shortly after the launch, however, mission managers detected helium leaks in the capsule’s propulsion system, and then several thrusters malfunctioned as the spacecraft tried to dock with the space station.Weeks of tests followed; in the end, NASA opted to fly the Starliner capsule back to Earth without anyone onboard. Wilmore and Williams remained at the International Space Station for more than nine months as they awaited an opportunity to fly home on a different spacecraft.NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., before boarding the Boeing CST-100 Starliner in 2024. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP – Getty Images file)(Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo)NASA’s blistering report painted a dramatic picture of intensifying mistrust between NASA and Boeing, “chaotic meeting schedules” as the mission played out and perceptions of managers on both sides “as overly risk-tolerant and dismissive of dissenting views.”AdvertisementAdvertisementThe findings focus heavily on Boeing’s shortcomings in building and testing the Starliner spacecraft, though Isaacman said NASA and its Commercial Crew Program shou …
