NASA has been investigating the now-infamous Boeing Starliner incident since the story hit headlines in late 2024 and early 2025. The Starliner suffered malfunctions that Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, now retired, have been stranded for months. The agency released a report on what happened, taking responsibility for its role in the mission’s failure.
“The Boeing Starliner spacecraft has faced challenges throughout its most recent uncrewed and crewed missions,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a NASA blog post Thursday. “While Boeing was building the Starliner, NASA accepted it and launched two astronauts into space. The technical difficulties encountered during docking with the International Space Station were very evident.”
NASA has now labeled the mission a “Type A incident,” defined as a “total direct cost of mission failure and property damage exceeding $2 million or more,” or a “loss of crewed aircraft hull.” Both of these apply to the Starliner, which has cost the agency $4.2 billion to date.
Isaacman also released a letter addressed to all NASA employees on
These sentiments were echoed during NASA’s press conference on Thursday.
NASA is committed to working with Boeing to make the Starliner worthy of launch again and has studied and resolved technical issues since the accident early last year. Isaacman admitted at the press conference that the “true technical cause” of the malfunctions has still not been identified, but NASA believes it is close to identifying it.
“We’re not starting from scratch here,” Isaacman told a reporter at the news conference. “We are sharing the results of several investigations that will be revealed in the hours and days to come. Boeing and NASA have been working to try to understand these technical challenges throughout this period.”
A dysfunction to remember
The crewed Starliner flight was delayed several times before finally taking off on June 5, 2024. The crew experienced malfunctions en route to the ISS, including several thruster failures, which made docking particularly stressful.
The Starliner’s return was delayed for two weeks before finally being sent home without Wilmore and Williams, who remained stranded on the ISS until their return. with Crew-9 in March 2025.
The story of the Starliner is far from over. NASA and Boeing intend to return the Starliner to the ISS on an uncrewed resupply mission with a launch date currently set for April 2026.