The American Space Agency has officially classified the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner capsule in 2024 as a "Type A incident." This is the highest risk category in NASA's hierarchy, reserved for events resulting in crew death, loss of the spacecraft, or financial losses exceeding $2.5 million. The report reveals that the mission, which stranded two astronauts on the International Space Station, came close to a disaster on the scale of the Challenger or Columbia tragedies.

Highest Risk Category

The Starliner mission is classified as Type A, equating its severity with the greatest disasters in NASA's history.

Major Losses for Boeing

The capsule failed to complete its test plan, generating multi-million dollar financial losses and damaging the corporation's reputation.

Investigative Commission Recommendations

The report orders Boeing to completely overhaul safety protocols before receiving approval for further flights.

An independent commission appointed by NASA has published a report shedding new light on the test flight of the Starliner capsule. The document points to a series of critical technical failures, including propulsion system malfunctions and helium leaks, which prevented the crew's safe return to Earth aboard that vehicle. Although astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams ultimately remained on the ISS, the agency admitted the mission teetered on the brink of a tragically consequential accident. Experts emphasize that classifying the event as a "Mishap Type A" is a devastating assessment for Boeing, which has been grappling with image and technical problems for years. This decision calls into question the future of the contract under the Commercial Crew Program, which was meant to provide NASA with two independent crew transportation systems alongside SpaceX's capsules. The agency calculated that the financial and operational losses resulting from the need to involve other entities to bring the astronauts home and the damage to the capsule itself far exceeded the thresholds for lower incident categories. In 1986 and 2003, the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters occurred, leading to the deaths of fourteen astronauts in total and forcing a multi-year suspension of American crewed flights. Classifying the Starliner mission into the same category as these tragedies speaks to the scale of negligence uncovered during the investigation. Despite such a harsh assessment, NASA does not completely rule out further cooperation with the aviation giant, but the report sets strict conditions for certifying future flights. Boeing must now implement a comprehensive corrective action plan, covering not only engineering fixes to the spacecraft itself but also a deep reform of quality control and risk management processes, which proved completely ineffective during the 2024 mission. NASA Incident Categories (property value): Type C (min.): 0.05, Type B (min.): 0.5, Type A (min.): 2.59 miesięcy — the additional time astronauts spent in orbit due to the failure

Mentioned People

  • Butch Wilmore — NASA astronaut, participant in the Starliner mission, who was forced into an extended stay on the ISS.
  • Suni Williams — NASA astronaut, serving as pilot during the ill-fated Boeing capsule mission.