NASA on Thursday (February 19, 2026) released a sweeping report on Boeing’s botched Starliner mission that left two astronauts stuck on the International Space ​Station for nearly a year, detailing communication breakdowns and “unprofessional behavior” as the agency and its longtime contractor struggled to agree on ‌how to safely return the crew to Earth.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman ripped into Boeing and ​agency leadership for their handling of the Starliner mission during a short-notice news conference that coincided ⁠with the release of a 300-page report detailing technical and oversight failures behind the spacecraft’s first crewed mission, which concluded last year.

“Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not ‌hardware,” Isaacman wrote in a letter to NASA employees, which he posted in full on X.

“It is decision making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible ‌with human spaceflight,” he added, echoing findings in the report’s “cultural and organizational” section.

Starliner’s technical failures kept NASA ‌astronauts Butch ⁠Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS for nine months in a high-stakes test mission ⁠initially planned to last roughly a week.

On Earth, according to the report, Boeing and NASA officials sparred in tense meetings on how best to bring the crew home, with “unprofessional behavior” and yelling matches that countered the agency’s norms of healthy technical debate and crisis management.

The report, ​completed in November and citing interviews with unnamed ‌NASA officials, said “numerous interviewees mentioned defensive, unhealthy, contentious meetings during technical disagreements early in the mission.”

“There was yelling in meetings. It was emotionally charged and unproductive,” one official reported. “It was probably the ugliest environment that I’ve been in,” another said.

“There wasn’t a clear path for conflict resolution between the teams. That led to a ‌lot of frayed relationships and emotions,” said another.

The report also describes a “fragile partnership dynamic” between NASA and ​Boeing, in which agency officials’ concerns that Boeing could drop out of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program over engineering challenges and agency standards influenced officials’ decision-making on critical mission issues.

“This reluctance to ⁠challenge Boeing’s interpretations and failure to act on engineering concerns has contributed to risk acceptance and a fragile partnership dynamic.”

Boeing said in a statement that it was “grateful to NASA for its thorough investigation and the opportunity to contribute to ‌it.” The company, it added, has made progress on fixing Starliner’s technical issues and has made organizational changes.

NASA retroactively classified the Starliner mission as a “Type A” mishap, the agency’s most severe category of mission failure, triggered by factors such as damage to a spacecraft exceeding $2 million or a crew member’s death or permanent disability.

Boeing has spent tens of millions of dollars on efforts to fix Starliner following the mission, of roughly $2 billion in charges the company has taken so far on the program since 2016.

The total value of Boeing’s NASA contract since ‌its 2014 award has increased by roughly $300 million to $4.5 billion, due to development setbacks and added testing, with some $2.2 billion of the ​total amount paid to Boeing so far.

But NASA last year reduced the contract’s total value to $3.7 billion and cut the number of planned Starliner flights from six to four, ⁠as Boeing’s engineering struggles inch closer to 2030, the planned retirement of the ISS.

Wilmore and Williams, both veteran test ⁠pilots and astronauts, safely returned to Earth last year on a SpaceX craft after their faulty Starliner capsule returned empty.

“First and foremost, we’re trying to send a message about what is the right ‌and wrong way to handle situations like this, so that they do not recur,” Isaacman told reporters.

The report also lists four previously known technical anomalies that led to mission-failure status, including Starliner’s propulsion system glitches ​that complicated its ability to dock with the ISS in the first hours of its mission.

Published – February 21, 2026 10:02 am IST

South Korea was reeling Monday from the loss of 179 people after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed and burst into flames, with a team of US investigators joining local authorities to probe possible causes.

The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea when it crashed on arrival Sunday, killing everyone aboard — save two flight attendants pulled from the twisted wreckage of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil. 

Officials have cited a bird strike as a likely cause of the crash, which flung passengers from the plane and left it “almost completely destroyed”, according to fire officials.

Video showed Jeju Air Flight 2216 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Sunday that it would lead a team of investigators, including from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), to join officials in South Korea in probing what caused the crash. The country has a solid air safety record.

Both black boxes — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — have been found.

One of the flight attendants who survived was awake in hospital and able to communicate late Sunday, the Yonhap news agency reported. 

“When I woke up, I had already been rescued,” the 33-year-old told doctors, according to the hospital.

He suffered multiple fractures, while the other crew member — a 25-year-old woman — injured her ankle and head, Yonhap reported.

Inside the airport terminal late Sunday, tearful family members gathered to wait for news.

An official called out the names of 65 victims who have been identified, with each name triggering fresh cries of grief. 

Under floodlights, rescue workers used a giant yellow crane to lift the burned-out fuselage of the orange-and-white aircraft on the runway at Muan — some 288 kilometres (about 180 miles) southwest of Seoul.

Bits of plane seats and luggage were strewn across the field next to the runway, not far from the charred tail.

All of the passengers were Korean apart from two Thais, a three-year-old and a 78-year-old, authorities said.

“I had a son on board that plane,” an elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

“My younger sister went to heaven today,” a 65-year-old woman, who gave only her surname Jo, told AFP.

Authorities said they were working to complete the identification of all victims.

Minutes before the crash, the control tower had issued a warning of a bird strike, with the pilot soon after making a “mayday” distress call.

Video shows the plane coming off the tarmac and hitting a wall, but officials dismissed speculation that the length of the runway might be a factor in the crash.

Low-cost carrier Jeju Air said it “sincerely” apologised, with top officials shown bowing deeply at a press conference in Seoul.

Boeing said that it was in touch with Jeju Air and stood “ready to support them”.

South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok, who took office only on Friday, convened an emergency cabinet meeting and then visited the crash site at Muan.

US President Joe Biden led a wave of global condolences, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the crash. 

South Korea declared a seven-day national mourning period, with memorial altars to be set up nationwide.

It is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, which was established in 2005.

A number of fatal aviation accidents have occurred globally due to bird strikes, which can cause a loss of power if the animals are sucked into a plane’s air intakes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

The US aviation giant Boeing on Sunday extended its condolences to the families of victims killed in the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea’s Muan. A Boeing 737-800 aircraft, operated by Jeju Air, flying from Bangkok to South Korea with 181 people on board crashed on landing at Muan International Airport on Sunday, leaving all but two people plucked from the wreckage feared dead.

“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding Flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” Boeing said in a statement posted to its X account.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” the company added. 

pic.twitter.com/TIrIUBw4RB

— The Boeing Company (@Boeing) December 29, 2024

The US aerospace company has seen a turbulent time in the past few years, with a series of embarrassing safety blunders. Boeing, earlier this year, pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes. However, the Boeing 737-800 has been described reliable workhorse by experts, with the aircraft having an extremely strong safety record.

South Korea’s aviation industry has a solid safety record and the crash was the first fatal accident for Jeju Air. The crash is being dubbed as the worst civil aviation disaster in South Korea. 

What We Know Of The Crash So Far

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was reportedly warned of a bird strike by the control tower during its first attempt at landing shortly after 9:00 am (midnight GMT). However, minutes later, the pilot issued a “mayday” warning, and it tried to land again, with a video showing it attempting a “belly landing” without its landing gear activated.

Dramatic video showed the plane skidding along the runway with smoke trailing out before it hit a wall at the end and burst into flames.

Investigations have been launched, but according to a report by AFP, officials suspect the accident could have been caused by a bird strike and adverse weather conditions.

Questions were also raised if the accident happened due to the runway being too short, as the video showed the plane coming off the tarmac and hitting a wall. But, an official told AFP that it was likely not a factor. “The runway is 2,800 metres long, and similar-sized aircraft have been operating on it without issues,” they said.

There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members onboard. Rescue workers plucked out two survivors — both flight attendants — from the wreckage. As of mid-afternoon, 124 people have been confirmed dead.

Officials said there was “little chance of survival,” for others, adding that the plane was “almost completely destroyed,” during the crash.

Meanwhile, a rescue operation is underway with hundreds of firefighters and other emergency responders — including military — deployed to the area. 

The accident occurred with South Korea in the throes of a political crisis, with its third president in a month. Acting President Choi Sang-mok, on his third day in office, convened an emergency meeting with cabinet members to discuss the rescue operation and response and visited the crash scene. He also designated the site a special disaster zone.

San Francisco:

Boeing has laid off more than 400 members of its professional aerospace labour union, the union has revealed.

As of Thursday evening, Boeing had sent layoff notices to 438 union members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. The union’s local chapter has 17,000 Boeing employees who are largely based in Washington state, with some in states of Oregon, California and Utah.

The job cuts are part of a company-wide 10 per cent reduction in labour, which involves about 17,000 jobs across Boeing’s commercial, defence and global services division, Xinhua news agency reported.

The company announced the job cuts in October and began notifying those workers who will be impacted on Wednesday, the union said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

Boeing announced Friday that it plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce as it projected a large third-quarter loss in the wake of a machinist strike in the Seattle region.

The aviation giant must “reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality,” Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said, adding that the cuts of 17,000 positions globally “will include executives, managers and employees.”

The company announced a series of belt-tightening measures and production delays in the wake of the nearly month-long strike of 33,000 workers that has added to the company’s litany of problems.

Boeing staff with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers walked off the job on September 13 after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer.

Boeing said the strike contributed to $3 billion in pre-tax charges to its commercial aviation results in the third quarter, part of an anticipated loss of $9.97 per share.

“While our business is facing near-term challenges, we are making important strategic decisions for our future and have a clear view on the work we must do to restore our company,” Ortberg said in a press release.

“These decisive actions, along with key structural changes to our business, are necessary to remain competitive over the long term.”

As a result of the strike, Boeing said it is pushing back first delivery of the 777X to 2026 from 2025.

The company plans to cease production of the 767 Freighter in 2027 once it completes production on current orders.

Ortberg also vowed to take “additional oversight” of Boeing’s troubled defense and space businesses, which will experience “substantial new losses” in the third quarter, he said in the message to employes.

Shares of Boeing fell 1.7 percent in after-hours trading.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Boeing employees build 777 aircrafts under production at the Everett Production Facility on June 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Boeing will cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce, delay the first delivery of its 777X jet by a year and expects substantial new losses in its defence business as a month-long strike batters company finances, CEO Kelly Ortberg said on Friday (October 11, 2024).

Mr. Ortberg said in a message to employees that the company must reset its workforce levels “to align with our financial reality” after a strike by around 30,000 U.S. West Coast workers shuttered production of its 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets.

Washington:

Boeing’s first strike in 16 years could further compound global shortages of jetliners that have been pushing up airfares and forcing airlines to keep older jets flying longer, industry executives and analysts said.

The US planemaker’s West Coast workers went on strike at midnight on Friday after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract deal, halting production of Boeing’s workhorse 737 MAX.

It is Boeing’s first strike since 2008, and Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West warned a prolonged walkout could hurt output and “jeopardize our recovery”.

“Boeing is a systemically important company for global aviation,” Ross O’Connor, chief financial officer of Irish leasing company Avolon, told Reuters on Friday.

A strike “could have an impact on production levels, which could exacerbate some of the supply shortages that are in the market at the moment for sure,” he said after Avolon announced it had acquired a large portfolio of jets from Castlelake.

Airlines have struggled to expand capacity to meet rising demand as supplies of jetliners are curtailed by parts shortages, industry-wide recruitment problems and overloaded maintenance shops.

Analysts have been warning the most promising part of the industry’s all-important business cycle could run out before airlines have a chance to enjoy the full benefits of demand.

“It’s going to be a significant amount of time before we see that balance. I’m starting to evolve the hypothesis that it won’t be (extra) supply that corrects it, but instead a softening of demand,” said Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at Cirium Ascend.

Some say high air fares – although good for airlines in the short term – could themselves accelerate that tipping point.

“My view is that (average fares) will rise; and when ticket prices go up, then all other things being equal, you have lower traffic levels,” said aviation economist Adam Pilarski, senior vice-president at AVITAS consultancy.

As Boeing halts production of its most-sold jet, European rival Airbus is also struggling to meet its goals.

Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury expressed optimism at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference this week that the European planemaker would meet a recently lowered target of 770 deliveries this year, following a profit warning and engine supply glitch in the summer.

But following a short-lived spike in deliveries in July, industry sources questioned how comfortably the world’s largest planemaker would exceed last year’s 735.

Dwindling numbers of planes in storage and record-high utilization of existing planes confirm the supply squeeze.

FLEET AGE RISING

For now, Boeing’s lower production levels compared to Airbus may limit the incremental effect of the strike. Yet analysts said airlines have little room to maneuver.

With leasing companies also running out of available capacity, carriers need to keep existing jets flying longer.

For most of the past 15 years, the average age of the fleet declined as airlines and leasing companies took advantage of low interest rates to invest in new fuel-saving jets.

In 2010, the average age of the widely flown single-aisle jet fleet was about 10.2 years, according to Cirium data.

After dipping to 9.1 years during the pandemic as airlines grounded fleets, the age started growing again. It now stands at 11.3 years “and still heading upwards,” Morris said.

That is despite efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2050, which rely partly on modernizing the planes in service.

“It must mean that we’re burning more CO2 than we should be because we’re using more old aircraft…so one of the things that can go wrong is sustainability,” Morris said.

The airline industry says it is confident of reaching a target of net zero emissions by 2050.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Boeing machinist and union member leads cheers during the “stop work meeting” and strike sanction at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, July 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Boeing and its largest union said on Sunday (September 8, 2024) they reached agreement on a new contract that, if ratified, will avoid a strike that threatened to shut down aircraft production by the end of the coming week.

Boeing said 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers would get pay raises of 25% over the four-year contract, with average wages rising 33% due to seniority step increases. That is less than the 40% the union had demanded during negotiations.

But the company agreed with a key union demand to build its next plane in Washington state, presumably by union members.

Workers also would get $3,000 lump sum payments and a lower share of health care costs, Boeing said. The company would make new 401(k) contributions of up to $4,160 per employee, but the union would not achieve its demand to restore a defined-benefit pension plan that was eliminated in 2014.

“Negotiations are a give and take, and although there was no way to achieve success on every single item, we can honestly say that this proposal is the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history,” Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751, the machinists’ union outpost at Boeing, said in a statement posted on the union website.

The union’s bargaining committee is recommending that members ratify the contract, Holden said.

The president of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, Stephanie Pope, said on Sunday in a video for employees that the proposed contract includes the company’s largest-ever general wage increase. She said the promise to build Boeing’s next new airliner in the Puget Sound area means job security for generations to come.

The proposed contract is contingent on union members ratifying before midnight Thursday Pacific time, after which the union was threatening to strike.

The union has scheduled a two-part election for Thursday, with workers voting whether to accept the contract, and whether to authorize a strike if they reject the offer. Voting will occur at about a half-dozen locations in Washington state and one in California.

A strike would have added to the headwinds facing Boeing, which is hurtling toward a sixth straight money-losing year and just hired a new CEO to turn things around.

The new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, will try to reverse $27 billion in losses since the start of 2019. His assignment includes fixing problems in Boeing’s aircraft-manufacturing process, gaining regulatory approval for the long-delayed 777X jumbo jet, limiting damage from over-budget government contracts, paying down $45 billion in net debt, and absorbing Spirit AeroSystems, the money-losing key supplier that Boeing just bought for $4.7 billion.

Mr. Ortberg has sounded conciliatory toward the machinists’ union.

“He understands that they are basically contentious relationships with the union, and he wants to make those relationships better,” TD Cowen aerospace analyst Cai von Rumohr said.

A walkout at Boeing would not affect consumers, but it would shut down Boeing’s airplane production cut off needed cash. Von Rumohr said aircraft makers typically get about 60% of the purchase price on delivery, “so not delivering planes has a massive impact on your cash in-flow, and your costs probably continue on.”

An eight-week strike in 2008, the longest at Boeing since a 10-week walkout in 1995, cost the company about $100 million a day in deferred revenue.

Before the tentative agreement was announced, Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu estimated that a strike would cost the company about $3 billion based on the 2008 strike plus inflation and current airplane-production rates.

Boeing is in far worse financial shape than it was in 2008. The company has lost $27 billion since the start of 2019, around the time that its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, was grounded worldwide after the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Revenue is down, debt is up.

Boeing’s greatest strength is that is remains one of the world’s two leading manufacturers of airline jets, forming a duopoly with Europe’s Airbus. Boeing has a huge backlog of orders, which it values at more than $500 billion.

New Delhi:

NASA, on Saturday, announced that Boeing’s Starliner capsule will return empty from the International Space Station (ISS), citing ongoing propulsion system problems. This latest development adds to Boeing’s woes, with estimated losses in the Starliner program exceeding $1 billion, reported CNBC.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will now return on Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Crew-9 vehicle in February 2025, after a six-month extended stay on the ISS. The original nine-day test flight was delayed due to issues with Starliner’s thrusters.

A “technical disagreement” between NASA and Boeing led to the decision, with NASA prioritising safety and choosing SpaceX for the return mission.

“Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the necessary data to make this decision,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Saturday. “We want to further understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our assured crew access to the ISS.” Mr Nelson stressed that test flights like the Starliner mission are “neither safe, nor routine.”

Following the decision, NASA will conduct an additional phase of its Flight Readiness Review to determine the optimal time to bring the empty Starliner capsule back to Earth. 

Despite Boeing’s assurances that Starliner was safe for emergency crew return, NASA disagreed. Mr Nelson expressed support for Boeing, stating he was “100% certain” that Starliner would launch with a crew again in the future. Boeing also reaffirmed its commitment to safety, saying it would execute the mission as determined by NASA and prepare for a safe uncrewed return. 

In a statement on X, Boeing said, “We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

Ken Bowersox, NASA associate administrator, said NASA officials were unanimous in their decision to choose SpaceX to bring the crew home. Meanwhile, SpaceX will bring two astronauts along on its Crew-9 vehicle – instead of the four who were originally planned to go – to make room for Wilmore and Williams.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule, ‘Calypso’, has been docked at the International Space Station since June, with its mission extended indefinitely due to ongoing thruster failures. The Starliner crew flight test, intended to be a final milestone for Boeing, has instead become a major setback. 

In this photo provided by NASA, astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams inspect safety hardware aboard the International Space Station on August 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

NASA decided on Saturday (August 24, 2024) it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.

The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the trip back.

After almost three months, the decision finally came down from NASA’s highest ranks on Saturday (August 24, 2024). Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will come back in a SpaceX spacecraft in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in early September and attempt to return on autopilot.

As Starliner’s test pilots, the pair should have overseen this critical last leg of the journey, with touchdown in the U.S. desert.

“A test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine,” said NASA Administration Bill Nelson. “And so the decision… is a commitment to safety.”

“This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” added NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.

It was a blow to Boeing, adding to the safety concerns plaguing the company on its airplane side. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crew trip to revive the troubled program after years of delays and ballooning costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all the recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.

Boeing did not participate in Saturday’s news conference by NASA but released a statement: “Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

Retired Navy captains with previous long-duration spaceflight experience, Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, anticipated surprises when they accepted the shakedown cruise of a new spacecraft, although not quite to this extent.

Before their June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, they said their families bought into the uncertainty and stress of their professional careers decades ago. During their lone orbital news conference last month, they said they had trust in the thruster testing being conducted. They had no complaints, they added, and enjoyed pitching in with space station work.

Wilmore’s wife, Deanna, was equally stoic in an interview earlier this month with WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, their home state. She was already bracing for a delay until next February: “You just sort of have to roll with it.”

There were few options.

The SpaceX capsule currently parked at the space station is reserved for the four residents who have been there since March. They will return in late September, their stay extended a month by the Starliner dilemma. NASA said it would be unsafe to squeeze two more into the capsule, except in an emergency.

The docked Russian Soyuz capsule is even tighter, capable of flying only three — two of them Russians wrapping up a yearlong stint.

So Wilmore and Williams will wait for SpaceX’s next taxi flight. It’s due to launch in late September with two astronauts instead of the usual four for a routine six-month stay. NASA yanked two to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight in late February.

NASA said no serious consideration was given to asking SpaceX for a quick stand-alone rescue. Last year, the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement Soyuz capsule for three men whose original craft was damaged by space junk. The switch pushed their mission beyond a year, a U.S. space endurance record still held by Frank Rubio.

Starliner’s woes began long before its latest flight.

Bad software fouled the first test flight without a crew in 2019, prompting a do-over in 2022. Then parachute and other issues cropped up, including a helium leak in the capsule’s propellant system that nixed a launch attempt in May. The leak eventually was deemed to be isolated and small enough to pose no concern. But more leaks sprouted following liftoff, and five thrusters also failed.

All but one of those small thrusters restarted in flight. But engineers remain perplexed as to why some thruster seals appear to swell, obstructing the propellant lines, then revert to their normal size.

These 28 thrusters are vital. Besides needed for space station rendezvous, they keep the capsule pointed in the right direction at flight’s end as bigger engines steer the craft out of orbit. Coming in crooked could result in catastrophe.

With the Columbia disaster still fresh in many minds — the shuttle broke apart during reentry in 2003, killing all seven aboard — NASA embraced open debate over Starliner’s return capability. Dissenting views were stifled during Columbia’s doomed flight, just as they were during Challenger’s in 1986.

Despite Saturday’s decision, NASA isn’t giving up on Boeing.

NASA went into its commercial crew program a decade ago wanting two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts in the post-shuttle era. Boeing won the bigger contract: more than $4 billion, compared with SpaceX’s $2.6 billion.

With station supply runs already under its belt, SpaceX aced its first of now nine astronaut flights in 2020, while Boeing got bogged down in design flaws that set the company back more than $1 billion. NASA officials still hold out hope that Starliner’s problems can be corrected in time for another crew flight in another year or so.