NASA chief blames former leadership, Boeing for failed Starliner mission

• NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is criticizing former agency leadership for the mishandled Boeing Starliner mission.
• A new NASA report cites technical failures and unprofessional behavior during the mission that left two astronauts at the ISS for months.
• The Starliner mission was retroactively classified as a "Type A" failure, the most serious category, due to the risk posed to the crew.
• Despite the issues, NASA and Boeing plan to launch another uncrewed Starliner test flight in April 2026.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is taking aim at former leadership of the space agency he now heads for the botched Boeing Starliner mission.

Between 2024 and 2025, the Starliner saga drew widespread headlines and even ridicule from elected officials when two NASA astronauts were unexpectedly left at the International Space Station for months. The debacle played out in the eye of the public as NASA officials weighed how to balance overarching goals for the Starliner vehicle with the safety of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Now, a new report released by NASA lambasts not just the technical failures of Boeing's spacecraft, but the "unprofessional behavior" as leaders debated how the troubled test mission should unfold.

“Had different decisions been made, had thrusters not been recovered or had docking been unsuccessful, the outcome of this mission could have been very, very different," Isaacman said during a Thursday, Feb. 19, news conference.

Here's what to know about NASA's new report and what Isaacman is saying.

What happened with the Boeing Starliner mission?

As the two astronauts selected for the Starliner's maiden crewed flight test, Wilmore and Williams launched June 5, 2024, on a mission to test a vehicle intended to one day join the SpaceX Dragon in transporting NASA astronauts to orbit.

Wilmore and Williams, who have both since retired from NASA, reached the International Space Station a day after launching, where they were expected to remain for about 10 days before returning home.

Boeing is developing the Starliner spacecraft with the goal of it becoming a second operational vehicle for NASA to transport crews and cargo to the ISS before the station is retired by 2030. The missions would be contracted under the U.S. space agency's commercial crew program, under which NASA pays private companies to conduct orbital spaceflights using their own commercial vehicles.

SpaceX has already been making routine trips since 2020 to the space station under the program using its Dragon capsule. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of the SpaceX Crew missions feature a contingent of four.

NASA chief Jared Isaacman blasts former leaders, Boeing

Isaacman's scathing assessment came during a Thursday, Feb. 19, news conference in which NASA unveiled a sweeping 300-page report on Boeing's botched Starliner mission. The report, completed internally in November, cited interviews with unnamed NASA officials in its conclusion that "defensive, unhealthy, contentious meetings during technical disagreements early in the mission" tainted the decision-making process.

NASA retroactively classified the Starliner mission as the most serious "Type A" mission failure, on par with the Challenger disaster. Though no lives were lost and no one was injured, significant damage to the spacecraft exceeded $2 million and put the crew members at severe risk of death or injury, according to the report.

"Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware," Isaacman wrote in a letter to NASA employees, which he posted in full on X. "It is decision making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight."

Isaacman promised the agency he now heads will take steps to rebuild trust between leadership, its workers and the astronauts themselves.

Why did Starliner return without astronauts?

The crewed Starliner test flight mission ended in failure when engineers discovered a slew of helium leaks and problems with the craft's propulsion system that stalled the vehicle's return to Earth.

NASA ultimately determined that the troubled Starliner capsule wasn't safe enough for a crew. In September 2024, the empty spacecraft undocked and made its way back to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in the New Mexico desert.

NASA also opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth and leave the station understaffed. Williams and Wilmore were ultimately at the space station for 286 days before returning in March 2025 with a SpaceX mission known as Crew-9 on a Dragon capsule for a water landing in Florida.

President Trump, Elon Musk also criticized NASA for 'stuck' astronauts

Isaacman is far from the first official to levy criticism against the way NASA and Boeing handled the Starliner mission, which quickly became a politicized topic after it encountered troubles.

Most prominently, President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk both weighed in, placing blame on the Biden administration while asserting that the astronauts had been "abandoned" and remained "stuck" in space. Trump also sought to spin the return of the Starliner astronauts as his own success, despite the plan being in place for months before he was elected.

For their part, Wilmore and Williams routinely defended NASA's decision while downplaying their extended stay as being part of the job.

"We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short," Wilmore said during a March 2025 news conference from the space station.

Separate 2024 report finds NASA 'took a thoughtful' approach

The new report appears to contrast with a separate 2024 report put out by an independent advisory panel shortly after the astronauts who originally crewed the Starliner landed back on Earth.

In its 2024 annual report, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, which reports to both NASA and Congress, confirmed NASA made the right call to undock the Starliner without its crew.

The decision, the report found, was "one of the most complex and challenging crew safety decisions NASA has faced in years," adding that the agency "took a thoughtful and effective approach" to err on the side of safety. While the Starliner largely "performed well" while making a successful autonomous landing, another separate thruster failure was later detected, according to the panel.

"Had the crew been aboard, this would have significantly increased the risk during re-entry, confirming the wisdom of the decision," the report found.

Is Starliner going to fly again? NASA, Boeing plan uncrewed 2026 launch

Despite the setback, NASA continues to work with Boeing toward making Starliner operational.

The next Starliner flight, a mission known as Starliner-1, could be launching in April 2026, NASA has previously announced.

This time around, no astronauts will fly aboard the spacecraft. Instead, NASA will use the mission to transport cargo to the International Space Station while conducting "in-flight validation of the system upgrades" implemented since the previous failed spaceflight, the agency said in November.

"NASA's report will reinforce our ongoing efforts to strengthen our work," Boeing said in a statement after the latest report was released. "We're working closely with NASA to ensure readiness for future Starliner missions."

Contributing: Reuters

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]