An independent review of the first — and so far, only — piloted flight of Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft concluded that the test represented a potentially life-threatening “Type A” mishap resulting from multiple technical problems and management miscues, NASA officials said Thursday. The findings prompted NASA’s new chief to make openly critical comments about his own agency and Boeing.”This was a really challenging event and…we almost did have a really terrible day,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator. “We failed them.”Boeing’s Starliner capsule, seen docked at the International Space Station while approaching the Nile Delta. / Credit: NASAHe was referring to now-retired astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who were launched in June 2024 expecting to spend eight to 10 days in space. They ended up remaining in orbit for 286 days, hitching a ride home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in March 2025 after NASA ruled out landing aboard the Starliner.AdvertisementAdvertisementNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took the reigns of the agency in December, said NASA will continue working with Boeing to make the Starliner a viable crew transport vehicle, adding that “sustained crew and cargo access to low Earth orbit will remain essential, and America benefits from competition and redundancy.””But to be clear, NASA will not fly another crew on Starliner until technical causes are understood and corrected, the propulsion system is fully qualified and appropriate investigation recommendations are implemented,” he said.He made the comments as the agency was releasing the results of a months-long independent investigation of the Starliner mission. The panel’s report cited a long list of management failures and technical issues that were not fully understood at the time, but were still considered acceptable for flight.The panel concluded the problems experienced during the mission were representative of a “Type A mishap,” meaning an unexpected event that could have resulted in death or permanent disability, damage to government property exceeding $2 million and the loss of a spacecraft or launch vehicle.AdvertisementAdvertisementIsaacman said the eventual cost of the Starliner’s woes exceeded the $2 million threshold “a hundred fold.””Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected,” he said. “But the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware. It’s decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human space flight.”NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (foreground) and Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya discuss an independent investigation into ill-understood technical problems, poor communications and other management shortcoming that put two astronauts in danger during a pil …
