NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has officially classified Boeing's troubled Starliner flight as a "Type A" mishap—NASA's most serious category, reserved for incidents involving death, permanent disability, or loss exceeding $2 million. It's the bureaucratic equivalent of saying "this was really, really bad."

The Starliner saga has been a masterclass in aerospace setbacks. The capsule that was supposed to compete with SpaceX's Crew Dragon has instead become a cautionary tale about the difficulties of human spaceflight. During its test flight, the spacecraft experienced thruster failures that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for months beyond their planned return date.

Nelson also admitted that NASA itself made mistakes in oversight. That's a significant admission from an agency that's supposed to be the gold standard for mission safety. It suggests the problems weren't just on Boeing's end—the regulatory checks that should have caught issues before launch didn't work as intended.

For Boeing, this is another blow to a commercial crew program that's already billions over budget and years behind schedule. The company took a $1.6 billion charge on Starliner in 2024 alone. At some point, you have to ask: when does "troubled program" become "failed program"?

SpaceX, meanwhile, has been routinely ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS for years. The contrast couldn't be starker. One company iterated fast, failed publicly, and ultimately succeeded. The other used traditional aerospace development methods and is still trying to get a working vehicle certified.

The technology of human spaceflight is genuinely hard. The question is whether Boeing's approach is up to the challenge.