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Boeing’s second chance to test launch its troubled astronaut capsule to the International Space Station was likely delayed until mid-2022 as NASA and the aerospace giant went to new lengths to investigate problems with the spacecraft’s fuel valves.
The delay adds to the woes of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which stands in striking contrast to SpaceX, the private company founded by Elon Musk. The passenger spacecraft Crew Dragon has orbited its crew four times in the past two years, with a fifth scheduled for Halloween.
NS Starliner capsule arrived a few hours after launch to the space station on an Atlas 5 rocket in August, as part of a 10-day test mission without humans on board. The goal was to show that the spacecraft was safe enough to fly NASA astronauts. However, some of the Starliner’s fuel valves, supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne, a rocket engine manufacturer, did not open as designed during last-minute launch preparations, prompting engineers to return the rocket to its tower and eventually return the capsule. factory.
“We had no indication that there would be any problems with these valves,” John Vollmer, Boeing’s manager of commercial crew operations, told reporters on Tuesday. The valves are part of a fancy plumbing network in a detachable body called the “service module” that houses the Starliner’s actuation assembly. Mr Vollmer added that the components worked during previous tests, including the trial of the spacecraft’s emergency stop system in 2019.
Boeing has yet to determine what causes the valves to jam. Mr Vollmer said the engineers were considering whether to introduce an entirely new service module, but Boeing recently decided to keep the existing one.
The current guess as to what is causing the valve problem includes moisture accumulating near the Teflon seal of some valves. But with no obvious culprit, the company now plans to send the two valves to a NASA headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., for forensic CT scanning, using machines similar to those used to detect disease in humans.
Boeing built the Starliner under a $4.5 billion NASA contract. It was part of a NASA program known as Commercial Crew, designed to spur the special development of two competing space capsules capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX got its own contract for about $3 billion, and the Crew Dragon capsule made its first uncrewed flight to the space station in 2019.
Boeing’s attempt to launch a crewless Starliner in December 2019 failed to reach the space station due to dozens of software errorssome had to be repaired while the spacecraft was in orbit. Starliner would suffer what authorities call a catastrophic failure A panel of NASA aviation safety experts said at the time that engineers were unable to quickly fix some software issues.
The company spent 18 months making about 80 fixes on both the spacecraft and the spacecraft. Internal security culture of the Starliner teamAs mandated by NASA, Boeing received a $410 million fee to restart the Starliner for another uncrewed test in 2020.
Boeing also bears the cost of Starliner’s recent delays, said Mr Vollmer, without saying exactly what that cost is. “I don’t expect any accusations from this side of the government,” he said.
The NASA safety panel recommended in September that the agency and Boeing reframe how they examine the spacecraft’s readiness for future flights. “We came very close to launch without identifying the valve issue,” said George Nield, panel member and former head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s office of commercial space transport. He added that there are “pretty significant differences” in how the two organizations examine issues prior to launch.
Mr Vollmer said his team has considered the panel’s recommendation. “Are we going to do something different? That’s exactly what we’re looking at,” he said, adding that engineers may decide to charge the Starliner’s fuel closer to launch or find new ways to reduce humidity.
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