US Edition
NASA boss blasts Boeing and space agency managers for Starliner’s botched astronaut flight
NASA’s report faults Boeing’s Starliner design and oversight failures for thruster issues that stranded astronauts for nine months, with 61 recommendations made to prevent future risks.
- On Feb. 19, 2026, NASA announced an independent investigation classified the Boeing Starliner mission a Type A mishap, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman leading the press conference.
- Earlier test flights in 2019 and 2022 had shown propulsion anomalies during rendezvous cascaded into multiple RCS thruster failures and a temporary loss of six-degree-of-freedom control.
- After ground hot-fire tests at White Sands, Wilmore and Williams ultimately returned in March 2025 via SpaceX Dragon, extending the mission from 8-14 days to 93 days.
- NASA said it will not fly another crew on Starliner until technical causes are understood, released a 311-page independent investigation report, and will brief Congress, while Boeing faces heavy program costs.
- Moving forward, Isaacman pledged to work with Boeing and preserve multiple crew transportation systems as NASA prepares the Artemis II mission, urging transparency by saying, `To undertake missions that change the world, we must be transparent about both our successes and our shortcomings`.
159 Articles
159 Articles
NASA astronauts were 'stranded' in space by life-threatening mishap, report finds
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts "stranded" in space, came close to catastrophe because their spacecraft wasn't ready to fly, according to a scathing report by the space agency.
After 9 months in space, NASA report exposes failures in Boeing’s Starliner mission
Stranded for nine months at the International Space Station instead of a planned week, two astronauts were at the center of a 300-page NASA report sharply criticizing Boeing and agency leadership, classifying the mission as a serious failure and citing troubling lapses in decision-making
Management took responsibility for the events of the flight, in which astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams took the greatest risks.
A report by the US space agency NASA, published on Thursday, sharply criticizes the failed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in 2024, when astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were stranded in space, US media reported.
About one week, two US astronauts will remain on board the ISS in 2024. However, things are not going as planned. Because of a breakdown, the two can only return to Earth nine months later. Now the investigation report is available - and it reveals serious omissions.
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