‘Mission failure’: Nasa’s harsh verdict on Sunita Williams’ Starliner mission

Sunita Williams back to Earth after spending months in space

Nasa has sharply criticised Boeing’s Starliner programme following an investigation into the spacecraft’s troubled 2024 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), that led to astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore being stuck in space for months. The agency blamed both technical flaws and management shortcomings for the incident.The US space agency designated the test flight a “Type A mishap” — its highest classification for mission failures, previously used in cases such as the Columbia shuttle disaster that killed Kalpana Chawala and six others and the Challeneger explosion that also killed seven. Nasa said the label for the Starliner mission reflects the “potential for a significant mishap”.“We are formally declaring a Type A mishap and ensuring leadership accountability so situations like this never reoccur. We look forward to working with Boeing as both organizations implement corrective actions and return Starliner to flight only when ready,” said Nasa in a statement.“The Boeing Starliner spacecraft has faced challenges throughout its uncrewed and most recent crewed missions. While Boeing built Starliner, NASA accepted it and launched two astronauts to space. The technical difficulties encountered during docking with the International Space Station were very apparent,” said Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman. The mission drew global attention after propulsion system failures left Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams aboard the ISS for nine months, far exceeding the planned eight-to-14-day duration. The astronauts were ultimately brought back to Earth via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in March 2025.Isaacman said the investigation uncovered serious concerns extending beyond hardware issues. “Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware. It’s decision-making and leadership,” Isaacman said during a briefing.“If left unchecked,” he added, this mismanagement “could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight.”According to the report, the most significant risk to the crew occurred when Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned as the spacecraft approached the space station. Enough thrusters were restored to enable a successful docking, but officials said the outcome could have been far worse. “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,” Isaacman said.He also said that Nasa would not proceed with another Starliner mission until technical issues are resolved. “Nasa will not fly another crew on Starliner until technical causes are understood and corrected,” Isaacman said, adding that the spacecraft is currently “less reliable for crew survival than other crewed vehicles.”Isaacman also suggested that concerns about Boeing’s reputation influenced earlier internal reviews. “Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable bounds and place the mission, the crew and America’s space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time,” he said.However, despite the findings, Isaacman said that Nasa would continue working with Boeing. “Nasa will continue to work with Boeing, as we do all of our partners that are undertaking test flights,” he said.In a statement, Boeing said it remains committed to the Starliner programme. “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 officials also acknowledged internal accountability. “We managed the contract. We accepted the vehicle, we launched the crew to space. We made decisions from docking through post-mission actions,” Isaacman said. “A considerable portion of the responsibility and accountability rests here.”In a statement by Nasa it further said, “To undertake missions that change the world, we must be transparent about both our successes and our shortcomings. We have to own our mistakes and ensure they never happen again.”Nasa Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya also described the episode as a failure for the agency. “They have so much grace, and they’re so competent, the two of them, and we failed them,” Kshatriya said. “The agency failed them.”