NASA has officially designated the 2024–2025 Starliner test flight failure as a “Type A mishap”—the agency’s most severe safety classification—placing it alongside disasters like the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle catastrophes, as well as the Apollo 13 crisis. The designation reflects the serious risks faced by two NASA astronauts who spent nearly a year stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to critical spacecraft failures.
The Severity of a Type A Mishap
NASA’s Type A classification is reserved for incidents involving crew death or permanent disability, catastrophic spacecraft damage, major flight deviations, or mission costs exceeding $2 million. The Starliner mission met multiple criteria: its faulty thrusters jeopardized the crew, and the extended troubleshooting period required hundreds of millions in additional costs. This isn’t just an engineering failure; it’s a systemic breakdown in safety protocols that NASA is determined to address.
What Went Wrong
The Starliner capsule, launched in June 2024, suffered from a cascade of malfunctions shortly after reaching orbit: five helium leaks and multiple failures in the reaction control system (RCS) thrusters. Engineers scrambled to diagnose issues remotely while astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams remained stranded on the ISS. Investigations revealed that overheating Teflon seals within the thrusters likely caused propellant flow obstructions.
Despite temporary fixes, NASA feared the problems could recur during re-entry, and additional helium leaks threatened the spacecraft’s orbital maneuvering capabilities. The crew’s initial eight-day mission stretched to 286 days before a SpaceX Dragon capsule finally retrieved them in March 2025.
Leadership Under Scrutiny
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (appointed Dec. 17, 2025) has vowed “leadership accountability,” criticizing decision-making failures that allowed the situation to escalate. Isaacman stated that the mission should have been classified as Type A much earlier, once the severity of the thruster issues became clear. This suggests a culture of downplaying risks that NASA is now actively correcting.
“Pretending unpleasant situations did not occur teaches the wrong lessons,” Isaacman said. “Failure to learn invites failure again and suggests that, in human spaceflight, failure is an option. It is not.”
The Path Forward
Despite the scathing report, NASA intends to continue working with Boeing to resolve Starliner’s issues and restore it to crewed flight. The agency emphasizes that having multiple providers for crew transport is vital for national interests. Boeing has already spent roughly $2 billion addressing Starliner setbacks, and further testing is underway at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. A cargo-only Starliner mission to the ISS is planned for as early as April.
This comes at a critical time, as NASA prepares for the Artemis II lunar mission, for which Boeing also serves as the prime contractor. The agency’s commitment to rigorous testing and transparency will be crucial to avoiding similar failures in the future.
The Starliner mishap serves as a stark reminder that even in the age of commercial spaceflight, human space travel demands uncompromising safety standards and accountability. The incident underscores the high stakes involved and the necessity for leadership to prioritize mission integrity over deadlines or cost savings.
