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Yes. NASA knew Starliner had a small helium leak in its service module before Boeing’s first crewed launch on June 5, 2024. The leak was not the reason the earlier May 6 launch attempt was scrubbed; that countdown stopped because of a separate Atlas V upper-stage valve problem.
Once Starliner was in orbit, NASA reported additional helium leaks and reaction-control thruster failures. The spacecraft reached the International Space Station, but NASA ultimately judged that it did not have enough certainty to approve a crewed return. Starliner came home uncrewed, while astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams remained on the station.
Was the Starliner leak known before launch?
NASA’s May 24, 2024 update said engineers were assessing a small helium leak in Starliner’s service module while continuing propulsion work. That leak was already known when the spacecraft launched with Wilmore and Williams on June 5.
The leak must be separated from the May 6 launch scrub. That attempt was halted because of an Atlas V upper-stage valve issue, not because of Starliner’s helium leak.
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What was leaking on Boeing’s Starliner?
Starliner uses helium to pressurize its propulsion system. The pre-launch problem was in the service module’s helium system. NASA’s June 6 update reported three leaks at that point: one known before launch and two more detected after reaching orbit.
NASA’s June 28 update described five small leaks in service-module helium manifolds. Those figures are dated mission snapshots, not necessarily a final count. A later NASA search-result summary identifies the known leak as being at one service-module reaction-control-system thruster-port manifold flange, but the underlying technical report is not available here; that detail should therefore be treated as a reported location, not a complete explanation of the failure.
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What happened to Starliner’s thrusters?
During the approach to the station on June 6, five reaction-control thrusters failed off. Four were subsequently re-enabled, and Starliner docked with the International Space Station.
NASA continued ground and flight-data testing through June. Its updates paired the helium investigation with analysis of propulsion behavior, including an oxidizer isolation valve. The public mission updates did not establish a complete root cause for either the leaks or the thruster anomalies.
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Why did NASA let Starliner launch with a helium leak?
NASA’s decision reflected the leak’s assessed size, the spacecraft’s available helium and the mission plan at that time. On June 10, NASA said engineers believed the supply was sufficient for the expected return profile. The agency described roughly seven hours for a normal end-of-mission sequence and about 70 hours of helium-supported free-flight activity after undocking.
Those numbers were mission-specific estimates, not a universal Starliner rating or a guarantee that later evidence would support a crewed landing. Engineers were still evaluating five small leaks and propulsion performance as the mission continued.
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How the leak and propulsion findings changed during the mission
| Date | NASA’s reported situation | What it meant |
|---|---|---|
| May 6, 2024 | Atlas V upper-stage valve issue scrubbed the launch attempt. | This was separate from Starliner’s helium leak. |
| May 24 | A small service-module helium leak was under assessment. | The leak was known before the crewed launch. |
| June 5 | Starliner launched with Wilmore and Williams. | The spacecraft entered orbit for its first crewed flight. |
| June 6 | NASA reported three helium leaks, including two found in orbit; five reaction-control thrusters failed off during approach and four were re-enabled. | Starliner docked, but propulsion and leak investigations continued. |
| June 10 | NASA said helium reserves supported the planned return profile and continued assessing five small leaks and an oxidizer isolation valve. | This was an in-mission confidence assessment, not a final safety determination. |
| June 28 | NASA described five small leaks in service-module helium manifolds. | The reported count had increased as inspections and analysis progressed. |
| August 24 | NASA announced that Starliner would return without its crew. | Wilmore and Williams were reassigned to Crew-9 and remained aboard the station. |
Why did Starliner return without its astronauts?
On August 24, NASA said the uncertainty surrounding Starliner’s propulsion performance and the lack of expert concurrence did not meet its human-spaceflight safety and performance requirements for a crewed return. The agency chose to remove the astronauts from the landing risk while preserving the opportunity to return the spacecraft uncrewed.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson described the decision as a commitment to safety, noting that a test flight is not routine even when spaceflight operations are highly practiced. Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said Starliner was “a very capable spacecraft” but required “a higher level of certainty to perform a crewed return.”
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Starliner subsequently returned uncrewed, and the astronauts stayed on the International Space Station until a later ride home was arranged through Crew-9.
What is—and is not—known about the root cause?
The official mission updates establish the sequence of observations: a known service-module helium leak before launch, additional leaks in orbit, thruster failures during approach and continued propulsion testing. They do not, by themselves, establish a single failed seal, a definitive manifold mechanism or a complete root cause for all the anomalies.
It is also important not to treat NASA’s June assessment and August decision as contradictory. In June, the question was whether the estimated helium supply could support the planned flight profile. In August, NASA was deciding whether the available evidence provided enough certainty for people to ride the spacecraft through re-entry and landing. The agency concluded that it did not.
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