An eight-day mission to the International Space Station ended 286 days later in March 2025, when NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore finally returned aboard a SpaceX capsule — abandoning the Boeing Starliner they had arrived in after it developed thruster problems too serious to fly them home

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore supposed eight-day test flight aboard Boeing Starliner capsule in June 2024 morphed into an unexpected 286-day odyssey, forcing them to return to Earth via a SpaceX capsule in March 2025. This dramatic detour wasn't part of the plan: serious thruster malfunctions and helium leaks aboard Starliner rendered it unsafe for their return, shining an uncomfortable spotlight on Boeing ambitious commercial crew program. The extended stay and subsequent 'rescue' by SpaceX have profound implications, especially after a damning Program Investigation Team report, released in February 2026, classified the Starliner Crew Flight Test as a 'Type A mishap'—NASA most severe incident category. This report exposed a 'complex interplay' of hardware failures, qualification gaps, and critical leadership missteps at both NASA and Boeing, suggesting that the pursuit of a second commercial crew provider sometimes overshadowed safety concerns. The incident has solidified SpaceX dominance in human spaceflight, prompting NASA to award them six additional crew missions through 2030, reinforcing their role as the primary transport for ISS astronauts. As of June 2026, Boeing Starliner remains grounded for crewed flights, with its next mission, an uncrewed cargo flight (Starliner-1), now targeting no earlier than early-to-mid 2026, or potentially even 2027, as underlying thruster issues are still being addressed. The future of Starliner full certification and operational crew rotations now looks uncertain, pushing its potential for human transport missions to 2027 at the earliest. Meanwhile, NASA has already advanced SpaceX Crew-13 mission to mid-September 2026, ensuring continuous crew rotation to the International Space Station, emphasizing the agency's urgent need for reliable access to low Earth orbit.