Boeing’s second Starliner mission to the ISS is a make-or-break second
Now, Boeing goes for a high-stakes redo of that mission. On August 3, Orbital Flight Check 2, or OFT-2, will ship Starliner to the ISS once more. The corporate can not afford one other failure.
“There may be numerous credibility at stake right here,” says Greg Autry, an area coverage skilled at Arizona State College. “Nothing is extra seen than area methods that fly people.”
The afternoon of July 30 was a stark reminder of that visibility. After Russia’s new 23-ton multipurpose Nauka module docked with the ISS, it started firing its thrusters unexpectedly and with out command, shifting the ISS out of its correct and regular place in orbit. NASA and Russia mounted the issue and had issues stabilized in underneath an hour, however we nonetheless don’t know what occurred, and it’s unnerving to suppose what may have occurred if situations had been worse. The entire incident continues to be underneath investigation and has pressured NASA to postpone the Starliner launch from July 31 to August 3.
It’s exactly this sort of near-disaster Boeing desires to keep away from, for OFT-2 and any future mission with individuals onboard.
How Starliner received right here
The shutdown of the area shuttle program in 2011 gave NASA an opportunity to rethink its strategy. As an alternative of constructing a brand new spacecraft designed for journey to low Earth orbit, the company elected to open up alternatives to the non-public sector as a part of a brand new Business Crew Program. It awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to construct their very own crewed autos: Starliner and Crew Dragon, respectively. NASA would purchase flights on these autos and focus its personal efforts on constructing new applied sciences for missions to the moon, Mars, and elsewhere.
Each corporations hit growth delays, and for 9 years NASA’s solely method of attending to area was by handing over thousands and thousands of {dollars} to Russia for seats on Soyuz missions. SpaceX lastly despatched astronauts to area in Might 2020 (adopted by two extra crewed missions since), however Boeing continues to be lagging behind. Its December 2019 flight was imagined to show that every one its methods labored, and that it was able to docking with the ISS and returning to Earth safely. However a glitch with its inner clock brought on it to execute a essential burn prematurely, making it inconceivable to dock with the ISS.
A subsequent investigation revealed {that a} second glitch would have brought on Starliner to fireside its thrusters on the fallacious time when making its descent again to Earth, which may have destroyed the spacecraft. That glitch was mounted mere hours earlier than Starliner was set to come back again house. Software program points aren’t sudden in spacecraft growth, however they’re issues Boeing may have resolved forward of time with higher high quality management or higher oversight from NASA.
Boeing has had 21 months to repair these issues. NASA by no means demanded one other Starliner flight take a look at; Boeing elected to redo it and foot the $410 million invoice by itself.
“I absolutely count on the take a look at to go completely,” says Autry. “These issues concerned software program methods, and people ought to be simply resolvable.”
What’s at stake
If issues go fallacious, the repercussions will rely upon what these issues are. Ought to the spacecraft expertise one other set of software program issues, there’ll doubtless be hell to pay, and it’s very onerous to see how Boeing’s relationship with NASA may recuperate. A catastrophic failure for different causes would even be unhealthy, however area is unstable, and even tiny issues which might be onerous to anticipate and management for can result in explosive outcomes. Which may be extra forgivable.
If the brand new take a look at doesn’t succeed, NASA will nonetheless work with Boeing, however a re-flight “could be a pair years off,” says Roger Handberg, an area coverage skilled on the College of Central Florida. “NASA would doubtless return to SpaceX for extra flights, additional disadvantaging Boeing.”
Boeing wants OFT-2 to go properly for causes past simply fulfilling its contract with NASA. Neither SpaceX nor Boeing constructed its new autos to hold out ISS missions—they every had bigger ambitions. “There may be actual demand [for access to space] from high-net-worth people, demonstrated because the early 2000s, when a number of flew on the Russian Soyuz,” says Autry. “There may be additionally a really sturdy enterprise in flying the sovereign astronaut corps of many nations that aren’t able to construct their very own autos.”
SpaceX will show to be very stiff competitors. It has non-public missions—its personal and via Axiom Area—already slated for the following few years. Extra are certain to come back, particularly since Axiom, Sierra Nevada, and different corporations plan to construct non-public area stations for paying guests.
Boeing’s greatest downside is price. NASA is paying the corporate $90 million per seat to fly astronauts to the ISS, versus $55 million per seat to SpaceX. “NASA can afford them as a result of after the shuttle issues the company didn’t need to develop into dependent upon a single flight system—if that breaks, every thing stops,” says Handberg. However non-public residents and different nations are more likely to plump for the cheaper—and extra skilled—possibility.
Boeing may undoubtedly use some good PR nowadays. It’s constructing the principle booster for the $20-billion-and-counting Area Launch System, set to be probably the most highly effective rocket on the planet. However excessive prices and large delays have turned it right into a lightning rod for criticism. In the meantime, alternate options like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Tremendous Heavy, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur have emerged or are set to debut within the subsequent few years. In 2019, NASA’s inspector common checked out potential fraud in Boeing contracts value up $661 million. And the corporate is among the fundamental characters on the heart of a legal probe involving a earlier bid for a lunar lander contract.
If there was ever a time Boeing wished to remind individuals what it’s able to and what it might probably do for the US area program, it’s subsequent week.
“One other failure would put Boeing thus far behind SpaceX that they could have to think about main modifications of their strategy,” says Handberg. “For Boeing, that is the present.”
