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Now, Boeing wants to make a big bet to rebuild that mission. On August 3, Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT-2 will be sent back to the Starliner ISS. The company cannot afford another bankruptcy.
“There’s a lot of credibility at stake here,” says Greg Autry, an expert on space policy at Arizona State University. “Nothing is seen more than space systems in which humans fly.”
The evening of July 30 was a tremendous reminder of that visibility. After the Russian 23-tonne multi-purpose Nauka module docked with the ISS, its engines began to launch unexpectedly and without command, shifting from its proper and normal position in the ISS orbit. NASA and Russia fixed the problem and things stabilized within an hour, but we still don’t know what happened, and it’s worrying to think what would have happened if the conditions had been worse. The whole incident is still under investigation and NASA has been forced to postpone the Starliner launch from July 31 to August 3.
In fact, Boeing wants to prevent almost this type of disaster for OFT-2 and any future missions on board.
How the Starliner got here
The shutdown of the space shuttle program in 2011 allowed NASA to rethink its vision. Instead of building a new spacecraft designed to travel in low Earth orbit, the agency chose to open up opportunities for the private sector as part of a new Commercial Crew Program. He awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build manned vehicles: Starliner and Crew Dragon, respectively. NASA would purchase flights with these vehicles and focus its efforts on building new technologies for missions to the moon, Mars, and other places.
Both companies had developmental delays and the only way NASA could reach space for nine years was to provide Russia with millions of dollars for seats for Soyuz missions. SpaceX finally sent astronauts into space in May 2020 (since they did two other crew missions), but Boeing is still behind it. The December 2019 flight had to prove that all of its systems were working and capable of docking with the ISS and returning safely to Earth. But the problem with its internal clock it caused critical redundancy to be made early, making it impossible to dock with the ISS.
A subsequent study revealed a the second problem The Starliner would cause it to fire at a bad moment as it descended to Earth, which could have destroyed the spaceship. This problem was resolved a few hours before Starliner returned home. Software problems are not unexpected in the development of spacecraft, but they are things Boeing could have fixed it before with better quality control or Better oversight of NASA.
Boeing has had 21 months to resolve these issues. NASA never requested another Starliner flight test; Boeing decided to rebuild and make a $ 410 million bill on its own.
“I absolutely hope the test goes perfectly,” Autry says. “These problems were involved in software systems, and these should be easily solved.”
What’s at stake
If things go wrong, the consequences will depend on what those things are. If the spacecraft had another software problem, it’s likely to pay hell, and it’s very hard to see how Boeing’s relationship with NASA could be restored. Catastrophic failure would also be bad for other reasons, but space is volatile, and even small problems that are difficult to predict and control can lead to explosive results. That can be more forgiving.
If the new test is not successful, NASA will work with Boeing, but again a flight could be “a couple of years ahead,” says Roger Handberg, a space policy expert at Central Florida University. “It is likely that NASA will go to SpaceX for more flights, which will further damage Boeing.”
Boeing needs OFT-2 for reasons beyond its contract with NASA. Neither SpaceX nor Boeing built their new vehicles to carry out ISS missions — each with greater ambitions. “There is a real demand [for access to space] tik valuable individualsIt has been proven since the early 2000s that several Soyuzs flew over the Russian, “says Autry.
SpaceX will prove to be a very tough competition. Has private missions – theirs and Through Axiom Space“It’s already planned for the next few years.” More sure to come, especially Axiom, Sierra Nevada, and other companies plan to build private space stations to pay visitors.
Boeing’s biggest problem is cost. NASA is paying $ 90 million to the seat company to take astronauts to the ISS, versus $ 55 million to SpaceX. “NASA can pay for them because after the shuttle problems the agency didn’t want to be dependent on a single flight system – if that breaks down, everything stops,” Handberg says. But private citizens and other countries are likely to get a cheaper and more experienced opportunity.
Boeing can certainly use good PR these days. It is building the main developer of the $ 20 billion space launch system, which will be the most powerful rocket in the world. But they have had high costs and long delays he turned it into a lightning rod for criticism. Meanwhile, alternatives like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy and Super Heavy, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA Vulcan Centaur will be created or released in the coming years. In 2019, NASA’s chief inspector He investigated the potential fraud of the $ 661 million Boeing contract. And he’s one of the main characters in the center of a company criminal probe making an offer prior to the lunar landing contract.
Once Boeing wanted to remind people what it’s capable of and what it can do with the U.S. space program, it’s next week.
“Another failure would put Boeing so far behind SpaceX that they would have to consider major changes in their perspective,” Handberg says. “This is for Boeing du show “.
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