Nearly two months after launch and nearly 50 days after they were initially scheduled to return to Earth, two astronauts stuck aboard the International Space Station appear to be finally nearing their journey home. That they ran into problems with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft has raised fresh doubts about the company’s technical and engineering capabilities as it has faced several major scandals.
The two astronauts who boarded the Starliner, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunny” Williams, stayed on the ISS longer than initially intended, although both NASA and Boeing insisted that the astronauts were not “unsafe” as some headlines indicated. They have reserves of oxygen and supplies and can use other spacecraft docked at the station if they need to make a quick exit to Earth.
The trip was always intended as a test flight for the spacecraft, and Boeing and NASA said the time spent understanding and fixing the spacecraft’s problems — including multiple helium leaks and thrusters that shut down unexpectedly — was worth it while in space.
“We don’t understand enough to fix the problems permanently, and the only way we can do that is to take time in this unique environment and get more data, run more experiments,” Mark NappyBoeing’s commercial crew program vice president and program manager said, a June press conference.
On Saturday, NASA and Boeing engineers tested 27 of the spacecraft’s 28 thrusters, the system that propels Starliner into space. Tuesday, the The space agency announced Once the tested thrusters are performing well enough to return the spacecraft to Earth, and after seeing the test data, Boeing and NASA will set a date for the ship and its crew to leave the station.
None of this is on track with Boeing’s space program; It has struggled since its initial contract with the US government was signed, and it’s unclear whether the company will be able to change course in time to prepare for the mission the Starliner was designed for.
How the Boeing Starliner’s test mission stretched from 10 days to 55 and counting
Initial plans by NASA and Boeing were for Starliner to regularly ferry astronauts from the ISS by this year. To do this safely means a test flight like this, as the problem —even fatal – This is not unknown in space travel.
The Starliner, however, faced problems before taking off. The initial launch date, May 6, was delayed due to a faulty pressure control valve in the liquid oxygen tank, including the liquid hydrogen source. Enables rocket propulsion. Then, a helium leak Service module — where The propulsion system is locatedMany of the craft’s instruments are stuck, and that disconnects from the spacecraft during its return to Earth — pushing back the newly scheduled May 25 launch date.
Although engineers realized the leak was manageable, three more helium leaks emerged when the spacecraft docked with the ISS on June 6. Another problem, this time with five of Starliner’s 28 feedback control system thrusters, which help navigate the spacecraft, also emerged. This meant the spacecraft was unable to dock with the ISS until engineers on the ground could determine how to position the spacecraft to dock safely.
After testing both at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico and on the ground in space, the thrusters appear to be working properly, which will be critical for the astronauts’ return to Earth. Essentially, the crew will now be able to Cue Starliner On the return journey various engines propel it in the right direction before. Helium also leaks, seems to have stabilized. However, no date has yet been set for the return mission.
“I don’t see it as critical or life-threatening,” said Laura Forzik, executive director of space consulting group Astrolytics. told NPR. “I think they’re being extra careful, as they should be, because this car is not working as intended.”
The Boeing commercial space project has been a disaster, and it’s not just the Starliner test mission.
There have been three troubled launches since the Boeing-NASA joint venture began in 2014. The spacecraft’s 2019 test flight had to be cut short due to a software problem that prevented docking at the ISS. (There was no crew on this flight.) Starliner, still uncrewed, successfully docked with the ISS in 2022, though there were several more technical problems in the intervening years.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made several successful trips into space since 2020 — and is one of the vehicles that Williams and Wilmore could use to return to Earth if some other problem occurs with the Starliner. SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship
Boeing has been in big trouble lately
Starliner’s first mission, at least, carried Three astronautsis tentatively scheduled for Not before August 2025, in order to give the NASA and Boeing teams time to fix problems that arose during this test flight By then, the whole purpose of the project would be almost moot; ISS is Scheduled to close in 2030.
Boeing’s space woes are part of the problems plaguing the company, which is primarily known as a commercial airliner and defense industry The manufacturer has been under significant scrutiny following a series of catastrophic failures of its 737 Max commercial aircraft.
There was a horrific incident in January, where a door plug came loose on an Alaska Airlines flight, and two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. As Vox’s Whizzy Kim wrote in January:
Boeing planes tend to crop up with other problems with a common denominator: Failure of a Boeing 737 aircraft Secretary of State Anthony Blinken intended to fly. The Wheel on the nose of a Boeing-made Delta aircraft Falling just before takeoff. A Defective anti-icing system This can cause the engine to break if the pilots don’t remember to shut it down after five minutes. Misdrilled holes. “loose bolt” – a pair of words no one ever wants to hear in connection with their aircraft – the ones peeling off the screen Decades of security breaches and costly legal violations At Boeing
Boeing and Alaska Airlines are also embroiled in a lawsuit over the January incident. There is Boeing and the Department of Justice Entered into a plea agreement 2018 relates to Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines flights that killed 189 and 157 respectively. Boeing will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the FAA in its evaluation of the 737 Max, possibly avoiding a criminal trial that could reveal more wrongdoing.
Under the agreement, the company will be fined $487.2 million and must pay restitution to the victims’ families, who already Opposition to the agreement.
Many of Boeing’s most serious mistakes are, as Vox’s Marin Kogan wrote in March, due at least in part to a highly corporatized structure of the company that in recent decades has focused less on hard engineering than on shareholder returns.
All the problems — the back-up space program, the serious incidents involving the 737 Max — are part of the same troubled system at Boeing. It remains to be seen whether the company will face its problems and change its operations.
