NASA has released a scathing internal report classifying the Boeing Starliner incident at the same severity level as the fatal Columbia and Challenger shuttle disasters, marking an extraordinary public rebuke of one of America’s most prominent aerospace contractors.

The report details a cascade of engineering failures, management oversights, and communication breakdowns that led to the spacecraft’s troubled uncrewed return to Earth after astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stranded on the International Space Station.

“The Starliner programme represents a systemic failure in quality assurance and risk management,” said new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “We owe it to the public and to future astronauts to be completely transparent about what went wrong.”

Boeing has faced billions in cost overruns on the Starliner programme, which was originally contracted alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to provide redundant crew transportation to the ISS.

The report recommends sweeping changes to NASA’s contractor oversight processes and raises questions about the future viability of Boeing’s human spaceflight programme.