WASHINGTON \u2014 A new report links the long-running technical problems with Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle to a combination of overconfidence, unrealistic schedules and NASA\u2019s lack of insight into the vehicle.<\/p>\n
The report<\/a> by NASA\u2019s Office of Inspector General, released June 30, adds to the uncertainty about when Starliner will be approved for crewed missions to the International Space Station despite optimism from Boeing\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n Starliner has not flown since its Crew Flight Test, or CFT, mission two years ago, which suffered thruster malfunctions and other issues that led NASA to return the spacecraft to Earth uncrewed. The NASA astronauts who flew on Starliner to the ISS remained there until March 2025, returning on a Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n The OIG report said the problems with that mission, as well as two previous uncrewed test flights, had three underlying causes.<\/p>\n \u201cNASA was overconfident in Boeing\u2019s design and potential success based on the provider\u2019s use of heritage systems and its long-standing spaceflight experience,\u201d the report stated, noting that NASA allowed Boeing to skip integrated testing of those systems.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond, this overconfidence led to Boeing establishing, and NASA accepting, an unrealistic launch and flight-test schedule,\u201d the report said. NASA\u2019s commercial crew program \u201cconsistently operated as if Starliner\u2019s CFT mission was only 6 months away\u201d starting in May 2021, although the mission did not ultimately launch until June 2024. Those schedules, the report argued, affected work on vehicle systems and testing.<\/p>\n OIG said the third factor was that NASA lacked access to Starliner flight simulator data. Access to the data was limited by the contract between NASA and Boeing, but OIG said NASA did not take advantage of the data that was available before the CFT mission, including simulation runs that resulted in the loss of vehicle or crew.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CFT crew noted this was unlike the shuttle era, when simulation failures resulted in full and open investigations, with reporting to its crews,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n Exacerbating those issues is a lack of personnel. The report said that the commercial crew program office lost 21% of its personnel to attrition and reorganizations as of April 2025, and the office was uncertain whether it would be able to continue to access staff in other parts of the agency that it had relied on to help review the safety of vehicles.<\/p>\n OIG noted NASA has taken action to address those issues but criticized the agency for waiting until February, more than a year and a half after the launch of CFT, to formally classify it as a \u201cType A\u201d mishap. That came only after an independent review recommended that designation, citing technical and organizational problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our judgment, the 21-month delay in failing to classify the CFT mission as a Type A mishap continues to delay resolution of Starliner issues that have persisted across three flight tests since 2019, further compounding costly delays in obtaining certification and limiting NASA\u2019s options for crew transportation,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n Uncertainty versus optimism<\/p>\n The report highlights the uncertainty about when Starliner will fly again and when, or even if, it will be certified for ISS crew rotation missions, given the pending retirement of the ISS in 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the near term, given the continued challenges, we have concerns that all three of Boeing\u2019s authorized flights will not be flown by 2030 when NASA plans to decommission the station,\u201d the report stated, referring to the three crewed Starliner flights Boeing is under contract to perform.<\/p>\n Those will come after Starliner-1, originally planned as a crewed flight but converted into a cargo-only mission last year<\/a>. That mission has not been scheduled, and NASA\u2019s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said at a June 22 meeting that Starliner-1 would fly \u201cin the next year or so\u201d without offering a more specific timetable<\/a>.<\/p>\n That uncertainty contrasts with the optimism Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg offered about Starliner in an interview with Aviation Week<\/a> published June 25.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made most of the corrective actions that came out of the prior flight test,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is still our plan to have additional launches. NASA is working through that schedule. It looks like there might be one launch this year instead of two.\u201d<\/p>\n