When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft approaches the International Space Station during a test flight. | Credit: NASAThe first astronaut mission of Boeing’s Starliner taxi was a bumpier ride than NASA wanted to admit at the time.The agency announced today (Feb. 19) that it has reclassified Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) as a “Type A mishap” — the most serious kind, in the same category as the space shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies.AdvertisementAdvertisement”This was a really challenging event in our recent history,” NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said during a press conference today, which highlighted the findings of a report into CFT and its issues. “We almost did have a really terrible day.”CFT launched on June 5, 2024, sending NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station (ISS) for a planned 10-day stay.Starliner reached the orbiting lab safely. On the way, however, the spacecraft suffered multiple thruster failures and temporarily lost “six degree of freedom” control — the ability to precisely maintain its desired orientation and trajectory.”Flight rules were appropriately challenged, control was recovered and docking was achieved,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during today’s press conference, reading from a letter that he said he had just sent to all NASA employees.AdvertisementAdvertisementBut, he added, “it is worth restating what should be obvious: At that moment, had different decisions been made, had thrusters not been recovered, or had docking been unsuccessful, the outcome of this mission could have been very, very different.”NASA prolonged the orbital stay of Williams and Wilmore multiple times to study Starliner’s thruster issues. In the end, the agency decided to bring the capsule home uncrewed, which occurred on Sept. 6.Starliner landed safely, but its departure was not entirely smooth. The spacecraft experienced “an unexpected crew module propulsion failure,” Isaacman said, and lacked “fault tolerance” in its thrusters throughout the reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.Williams and Wilmore, meanwhile, stayed aboard the ISS. They came home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in March of this year, having spent about nine months in space instead of the originally planned 10 days. Both have since retired from the agency.AdvertisementAdvertisementNASA recognizes five categories of mishap. From most to least serious, they are Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D, as well as “close calls.”More in ScienceThe dividing lines between them are clearly defined. For example, any incident that causes at least $2 million of damages or other unplanned mission costs, or involves unexpected “departure from controlled flight,” is a Type A mishap.CFT clearly met those criteria, Isaacman said today. But NASA did not classify the mission as a Type A mishap during and shortly after CFT, apparently because agency officials were too focused on getting Starliner certified to fly operational astronaut missions to the ISS.”Concern for the Starliner program’s reputation influenced that decision,” Isaacman said today. “Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable balance and placed the mission, the crew and America’s space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time decisions were being contemplated. This created a culture of mistrust that can never happen again, and there will be leadership accountability.”AdvertisementAdvertisementWith CFT officially being designated a Type A mishap, he added, “the record is now being corrected.”SpaceX has been carrying astronauts to and from the ISS sinc …
