NASA declares Boeing's botched Starliner flight a mishap on par with deadly space shuttle disasters

"NASA's own decision-making and leadership were partly to blame for the conditions that led to the months-long stranding of two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024. That's the major takeaway from a report released on Thursday by the space agency that summarizes investigationssome still ongoingof what went wrong before, during and after the botched crewed mission to test the readiness of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS."

"Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware, said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman at a press conference on Thursday. It's decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight. NASA has designated the incident a Type A mishapthe same categorization applied to the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, which resulted in the combined deaths of 14 astronauts."

NASA leadership and decision-making shortcomings contributed to the months-long stranding of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS in 2024. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft exhibits design and engineering deficiencies that require correction. Uncrewed orbital tests in 2019 and 2022 revealed unexpected thruster performance shortfalls. Despite those thruster issues and other technical problems, NASA proceeded with a crewed test flight that launched on June 5, 2024. The Starliner vehicle named Calypso experienced thruster malfunctions during docking. The mission has been designated a Type A mishap, reflecting the seriousness of the failures.

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