A review of the troubled Starliner mission in 2024 has classified the spacecraft’s first-ever crewed flight as a “Type A mishap,” a category encompassing the most severe unplanned events that pose a threat to life.
The spacecraft experienced issues with its thrusters on approach to the International Space Station (ISS) just over two years ago, and for a brief period of time lost the ability to safely orient itself.
After managing to dock, the two astronauts aboard the Starliner, NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, expected to return home 10 days later. But engineers, after failing to resolve the issue, decided out of an abundance of caution to bring the Starliner home empty. Williams and Wilmore ended up staying at the ISS for about nine months before returning to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
NASA’s Program Investigation Team (PIT), an independent group established by the space agency about a year ago, on Thursday publicly released its report into the incident in which it designated the troubled Starliner mission as a “Type A mishap.” This is the agency’s most serious classification, and puts the Starliner flight in the same category as the space shuttle Challenger and Columbia mission, which both suffered catastrophic failures.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya described the Starliner mission as “a really challenging event in our recent history,” adding, “We almost did have a really terrible day.”
Recently appointed NASA chief Jared Isaacman, also at the press conference, said that the Starliner has “design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected,” but added that “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.”
Isaacman said the spacecraft would not carry crew again “until technical causes are understood and corrected, the propulsion system is fully qualified, and appropriate investigation recommendations are implemented.” In the meantime, NASA will continue to rely on SpaceX for crewed flights to and from the ISS.
In sections that make for uncomfortable reading, PIT’s report includes remarks from unnamed individuals who worked on the Starliner, such as, “There was yelling in meetings. It was emotionally charged and unproductive.” Another comment said, “If you weren’t aligned with the desired outcome, your input was filtered out or dismissed,” while another said, “It was probably the ugliest environment I’ve been in.”
Isaacman promised that PIT’s report would be taken seriously, adding that “there will be accountability.”
Responding to the report, Boeing said in a statement on its website: “In the 18 months since our test flight, Boeing has made substantial progress on corrective actions for technical challenges we encountered and driven significant cultural changes across the team that directly align with the findings in the report.
“NASA’s report will reinforce our ongoing efforts to strengthen our work, and the work of all Commercial Crew Partners, in support of mission and crew safety, which is and must always be our highest priority.”
NASA and Boeing modified their Commercial Crew contract last November, announcing an uncrewed Starliner cargo mission for no earlier than April this year, followed by up to three crewed rotations before the ISS is retired in 2030. But there’s also a chance that the Starliner will never fly again.