Concerns regarding the spacecraft's thruster reliability had been raised prior to the flight, stemming from issues encountered during earlier uncrewed tests.

After their extended stay on the ISS, Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in March 2025 aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew 9 mission, while Starliner returned empty in September 2024 to minimize risks.

The launch of Starliner aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket was initially successful, but as the spacecraft approached the ISS, it began to lose thrusters, prompting astronaut Butch Wilmore to take manual control.

Given their harrowing experience, Wilmore and Williams decided against using Starliner for their return to Earth, expressing skepticism about the spacecraft's safety.

The loss of the first thruster, followed by a second, created a precarious situation where the astronauts had to weigh the risks of returning to Earth against attempting to dock with the station.

After losing a critical fourth thruster, Starliner was unable to maneuver, leaving the crew in a challenging position where they could neither dock nor safely reenter Earth's atmosphere.

Wilmore expressed concern over the loss of all six degrees of freedom control, likening the experience to flying a fly-by-wire aircraft, which complicated their approach.

In a pivotal moment, Mission Control instructed Wilmore to temporarily relinquish control of Starliner to reset the thrusters, which successfully restored functionality to two of the four failed thrusters.

Ultimately, NASA Mission Control took over control of Starliner for its final approach, executing a remote reset of the spacecraft's systems and enabling a successful docking with the ISS.

Despite the successful docking, both astronauts felt uncertain about the spacecraft's reliability for the return flight, leading to discussions about using Starliner as a safe haven in emergencies.

NASA's Boeing Starliner faced a critical situation during its docking attempt with the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024, as it lost multiple thrusters, leading to a near failure of the mission.

In light of the thruster losses, NASA chose to waive established flight rules that would typically require an abort of the docking process, allowing the mission to proceed despite the risks.