Boeing's Starliner went up for eight days — it came home empty, nine months later

On 5 June 2024, Boeing's Starliner carried astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station on what was meant to be an eight-day certification flight — the culmination of a program Boeing had been developing for over a decade, and the second crew taxi NASA had bought to end its dependence on a single ride to orbit. The spacecraft arrived leaking helium, with thrusters that inexplicably conked out on approach.

For two and a half months NASA and Boeing tested, debated and could not resolve the central question: would the thrusters hold for the deorbit burn? In August 2024 NASA decided it could not certify the crew's return on Starliner and ordered the spacecraft home empty. Wilmore and Williams stayed on the station — their eight-day trip became a nine-month assignment — until a SpaceX Dragon, reconfigured with two open seats, brought them back on 19 March 2025, 286 days after launch.

Boeing said it was focused 'first and foremost' on crew safety and executing NASA's decision; it had received significantly more money than SpaceX to develop its capsule, and delivered a spacecraft that could not bring its own crew home. NASA's subsequent investigation painted a damning picture of technical failures and the culture that shipped them. The case is not that thrusters failed — hardware fails — it is that a decade-long program reached the one test that mattered without the discipline to pass it, and a competitor had to finish the mission.