Boeing cant catch a break as its Starliner spacecraft gets delayed again

Date:
Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Description:
In an uncrewed test flight in May 2022, a Starliner capsule approaches the International Space Station. NASA Boeing's woes mean NASA may have to rely on SpaceX's crew capsules for the foreseeable future. The post Boeing cant catch a break as its Starliner spacecraft gets delayed again appeared first on Popular Science .

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In an uncrewed test flight in May 2022, a Starliner capsule approaches the International Space Station. NASA

The Boeing Starliner, a space capsule that was scheduled to launch in July
for its first crewed test flight, will remain on the ground for at least this summerif not indefinitely.

At a joint press conference on Thursday, NASA and Boeing officials explained they had discovered possible flaws in the Starliners parachute system. Even more alarmingly, hundreds of yards of potentially flammable tape were used to wrap electric wires throughout the spacecraft. The new problems were revealed after a parade of other hiccups: a software glitch put an early end to an uncrewed December 2020 Starliner test without people aboard, and an engine valve issue scrubbed an April 2021 follow-up attempt.

The latest problems, though, may be the most surprising. Just, wow, was the response to the most recent Starliner news from Wendy Whitman Cobb , a space policy expert and instructor at the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Design issues with parachutes are common within the space industry, she says, but the discovery of the tape almost a decade into the development of the spacecraft is grave. The fact that they have essentially put off the next flight test indefinitely speaks to the seriousness of that matter, Whitman says.

[Related: NASA is spending big on commercial space destinations ]

Boeing should have caught the software and valve issues sooner, Whitman Cobb says, and she believes the flammable tape and parachute issue are under the microscope now out of an earned abundance of caution. Because if something goes bad on this next one, who knows? she says. You might put the entire program in jeopardy.

Boeings craft was meant to be the aerospace giants answer to competitor SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft, a family of capsules that have been used for more than a decade to carry cargo to space and has begun ferrying crew in recent years. The long-awaited crewed test flight of the Starliner could still
happen by this fall, officials said at the news conference, but its not clear yet what and how much work will need to be done. With the future of the Starliner hazyand US-Russian relations at a generational lowNASA may be
forced to rely on SpaceX alone for crewed space launches to the International Space Station.

In 2014, NASA contracted the two commercial spaceflight operators to ensure the space agency always has a ride into space. Boeing and SpaceX received
$4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, to develop spacecraft and launch services for what would become NASAs Commercial Crew program. Under those contracts, Boeing produced the Starliner and SpaceX made the Crew Dragon.
But, now, theres a risk that SpaceX runs away with [the space launch market] and then you really are left with one company, Whitman Cobb says. Even if and when they do get Starliner going, I think theyre going to face stiff competition from SpaceX especially.

NASA previously experienced the uncomfortable position of relying on only one other partyRussiafor ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The agency didnt like it. And, had SpaceX not been able to begin service with its Dragon spacecraft, then that reliance would have become even more difficult following Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

[Related: Say hello to the Commerce Departments new space traffic-cop
program ]

From the start, Boeing, with its decades of experience building sophisticated aircraft and spacecraft, was presumed to have a lock on the Commercial Crew service. NASA wanted to give SpaceX a chance, but they did not consider them at the time to be the most reliable option for the future, Whitman Cobb says.

This is why it came as something of a shock when Starliners first uncrewed orbital test flight in December 2019 failed to dock with the ISS as planned due to a software problem. SpaceX, meanwhile, flew its first official astronaut-ferrying mission with a Dragon spacecraft in November 2020. Boeing, though, didnt successfully complete the uncrewed test flight until May 2022 .

Despite these setbacks, its unlikely Boeing will pull the plug on Starliner, barring some other disaster. Policy tends to continue on the trajectory that it is on unless and until something major happens, Whitman Cobb says. Unless something goes horribly wrong, theyre going to make Starliner work.

NASA, at least, almost certainly wants the Starliner to launch to provide redundancy, in case something happens with SpaceX. That could even lead to a strange situation where NASA pays Boeing for Starliner flights, even though the space agency could more easily hire a launch from SpaceX. I know it
doesnt make much sense to any of us economically, Whitman Cobb says, but in terms of having that assured access to space, this gets NASA there.

The post Boeing cant catch a break as its Starliner spacecraft gets delayed again appeared first on Popular Science . Articles may contain affiliate
links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.



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Link to news story: https://www.popsci.com/science/nasa-boeing-starliner-space-capsule/


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