The American space agency presented a report on last year's Starliner spacecraft mission, which stranded two astronauts on the International Space Station for nine months. NASA Chief Jared Isaacman officially admitted that the Agency disregarded crew safety, and the Boeing vehicle itself exhibits serious design flaws. The incident was classified as a Type A incident, placing it in the same category as the greatest disasters in the history of space exploration.

Agency's Admission of Guilt

The NASA chief admitted that management disregarded safety protocols, pushing for launch despite known technical problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

Type A Incident Category

The mission was formally classified as a Type A incident, equating its significance with the greatest tragedies in the history of US spaceflight.

Boeing's Design Flaws

The report points to critical design defects in the Starliner systems that require complete repair before further flight attempts.

NASA Director Jared Isaacman presented a groundbreaking report on the failed 2024 Boeing Starliner mission. The nearly 300-page document exposes a series of oversights on the part of both the Agency and the Boeing corporation. Isaacman emphasized that the drive to meet the schedule and optimize costs took precedence over the safety of Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore. These astronauts spent nearly nine months in orbit instead of the planned few days. The Agency formally classified this event as a Type A incident, which is the highest severity level in the internal scale of space incidents. Analysis revealed serious engineering deficiencies in the spacecraft's design, particularly in the propulsion system, which manifested during the docking attempt to the International Space Station. However, the most concerning conclusions pertain to the decision-making culture within NASA. According to the report, management ignored warning signals before launch, pushing the mission despite incomplete tests. Isaacman stated plainly that the Agency must take responsibility for the mistakes of the previous leadership and ensure that similar shortcomings never happen again. This situation casts doubt on future cooperation with Boeing on crewed flights. In the history of the American space program, NASA has rarely opted for such open self-criticism. The last time such extensive reports on safety management errors were published was after the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003, which led to the suspension of shuttle flights. This event is of immense significance for the Commercial Crew Program, as it shows a drastic difference in reliability between Boeing's solutions and the competition. Isaacman announced radical changes in oversight of private contractors. Astronaut Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore only returned to Earth aboard another company's spacecraft, which was a prestige defeat for Boeing. Now NASA faces the task of regaining public and Congressional trust while implementing rigorous technical corrections to the Starliner systems.

Mentioned People

  • Jared Isaacman — NASA Administrator who presented the investigative report and criticized the agency's mistakes.
  • Sunita Williams — NASA astronaut who was stranded on the ISS due to the Starliner malfunction.
  • Barry Wilmore — Astronaut who, along with Sunita Williams, participated in the flawed test mission.