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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.
The investigation classed the incident as a life-threatening “Type A mishap”, putting it on a par with the two fatal Space Shuttle disasters in 1986 and 2003.
It comes as NASA prepares to launch four astronauts on a mission to loop around the moon on a rocket that has flown only once before, without humans on board.
One senior NASA official said of the Starliner incident: “We almost did have a really terrible day.”
The Boeing-built Starliner capsule was on its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station in June 2024 when its thrusters failed, leaving it dangerously out of control.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams managed to restart the propulsion system and manually dock with the ISS.
But Jared Isaacman, the new NASA chief, told a news conference: “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.”
The two astronauts had been due to spend 10 days on the ISS, but their stay was extended to nine months while NASA assessed the problem.
Boeing’s Starliner-1 in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The capsule was eventually brought back to Earth without the two astronauts, but the new report reveals there were still issues with the thrusters during re-entry.
The Boeing Starliner had faced technical challenges throughout its development, including the use of flammable tape on electrical systems and a failure with the parachute system.
The report said the hardware failures were compounded by leadership mistakes and a cultural…
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