WASHINGTON — A new report links the long-running technical problems with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle to a combination of overconfidence, unrealistic schedules and NASA’s lack of insight into the vehicle.
The report by NASA’s 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’s chief executive.
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.
The OIG report said the problems with that mission, as well as two previous uncrewed test flights, had three underlying causes.
“NASA was overconfident in Boeing’s design and potential success based on the provider’s use of heritage systems and its long-standing spaceflight experience,” the report stated, noting that NASA allowed Boeing to skip integrated testing of those systems.
