NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
A Boeing official said Thursday that the corporate was “standing down” from an try to launch the Starliner spacecraft on July 21 to concentrate on recently discovered issues with the vehicle.
Mark Nappi, vp and program manager for Starliner, said two spacecraft problems were discovered before Memorial Day weekend and that the corporate spent the vacation investigating them. After internal discussions that included Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun, the corporate decided to delay the test flight that may carry NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station.
“Safety is at all times our top priority, and that drives this decision,” Nappi said during a teleconference with reporters.
Two issues
The problems seem quite serious to have been discovered weeks before Starliner was as a consequence of launch on an Atlas V rocket. The primary involves “soft links” within the lines that run from Starliner to its parachutes. Boeing discovered that these weren’t as strong as previously believed.
During a traditional flight, these substandard links wouldn’t be a difficulty. But Starliner’s parachute system is designed to land a crew safely in case one among the three parachutes fails. Nevertheless, as a consequence of the lower failure load limit with these soft links, if one parachute fails, it’s possible the lines between the spacecraft and its remaining two parachutes would snap as a consequence of the additional strain.
The second issue involves P-213 glass cloth tape that’s wrapped around wiring harnesses throughout the vehicle. These cables run all over the place, and Nappi said there are a whole bunch of feet of those wiring harnesses. The tape is meant to guard the wiring from nicks. Nevertheless, during recent tests, it was discovered that under certain circumstances possible in flight, this tape is flammable.
Uncertain slippage
In 2014 NASA selected two providers, Boeing and SpaceX, to develop crew transport systems for its astronauts to travel to the space station. SpaceX accomplished its first human flight in 2020 and has since flown nine additional crewed missions. Boeing has flown two uncrewed test flights of Starliner to this point and aimed to finish its demonstration flight with astronauts this summer.
Now it’s unclear when this “Crew Flight Test” will occur. Nappi said it was “feasible” for the mission to fly in 2023, but he didn’t wish to offer any dates. “I actually would not wish to commit to any dates or timeframes,” he said.
Boeing will spend the subsequent few weeks diving deeper into these issues and identifying a path forward to handle these and other problems. For instance, Nappi also said that, as Boeing was preparing to load propellant on Starliner ahead of the July flight, it found one other sticky valve. Valves have been an ongoing problem with the Starliner spacecraft.
Independent review?
Most definitely, Starliner will see one other significant delay on this test flight. These latest problems are prone to ratchet up concerns from outside observers in regards to the safety culture at Boeing. Last week, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel urged NASA to usher in independent experts to evaluate the viability of Starliner.
“Given the variety of remaining challenges to certification of Starliner, we strongly encourage NASA to step back and take a measured take a look at the remaining body of labor with respect to flying CFT,” Patricia Sanders, chair of the committee, said on May 25. She believes NASA should usher in an independent team, comparable to from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, “to take a deep take a look at the items on the trail to closure.”
That was probably the most recent issues cropped up. Doubtless, safety experts will likely be concerned about how these issues went undiscovered by Boeing and NASA until the ultimate weeks leading as much as the flight.
The Business Crew program is being funded through a fixed-price contract. Boeing received a $4.2 billion award from NASA in 2014, but as a consequence of ongoing delays—initially, Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon were purported to fly in 2017—Boeing has already taken cumulative charges against its earnings of $900 million. Nappi said Thursday that it is just too early to say if these issues will end in additional financial charges to this system.
Questions have been raised about whether Boeing will remain committed to the Starliner program, which is already a money loser. The corporate is contracted to fly six missions for NASA after certification of the Starliner vehicle, which is able to only occur after the crewed flight test. Boeing has already received much of the $4.2 billion from NASA in milestone awards, so it presumably would have to present a few of that a reimbursement if it didn’t fly astronauts for NASA. But the associated fee of flying those missions could also be greater than any funding Boeing would must pay back to NASA.
Asked if Boeing officials had any discussions about pulling out of the business crew program, Nappy replied: “Not serious discussions about that.”
