20 minutes – NASA overwhelms Boeing for its space capsule

The US space agency admitted on Friday that several problems had endangered the Boeing astronaut capsule, Starliner, during its empty test flight in December. NASA regrets systemic problems in the aerospace glove.

The flight suffered many anomalies, admitted NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine during a press conference, calling never, never be afraid of the truth.

LIVE NOW: Experts share info about Boeing’s #Starliner Orbital Flight Test reviews. Hear from: – Administrator @JimBridenstine – @DouglasLoverro – Kathy Lueders of our @Commercial_Crew Program– Jim Chilton & John Mulholland of @BoeingSpace? LISTEN: https://t.co/vMxa9le9Tipic.twitter.com/urHCQKl3iv– NASA (@NASA) February 7, 2020

The software anomalies are probably symptoms of the real problem, knowing that we have had many procedural malfunctions in the software development and testing cycle, said Doug Loverro, head of NASA Physical Flights. The supervision of NASA was insufficient, it is obvious, he admitted.

The first software problem, discovered shortly after the launch on December 20, prevented Starliner from being put into good orbit, which would have gone to the International Space Station but returned to Earth two days later. Manual intervention prevented the loss of the vehicle, according to NASA.

Destruction of the device quickly

The second was unable to communicate with the spacecraft for several minutes, due to radio noise probably from ground communications. This was not anticipated, admitted Boeing.

The third problem, revealed only Thursday by a NASA security commission and confirmed Friday by NASA and Boeing, could also have caused the destruction of the aircraft.

The system managing the service module, a part of the vessel that detaches from the habit module before entering the atmosphere, contained a computer code error. The error would have caused the thrusters to push the service module toward the habit module, which could have caused a shock, destabilized the vehicle or damaged its heat shield, said Boeing’s Jim Chilton.

Corporate culture involved

This error was not discovered until late on the Saturday evening before landing. The fix was downloaded just under three hours before by Boeing engineers, according to John Mulholland, project manager for the Starliner. Nothing had filtered the time.

The findings of the independent investigation will be ready by February. NASA officials have refused to speculate on the timing implications, while Starliner is expected to take its first astronauts to the ISS in the coming months. Doug Loverro spoke of potential problems in Boeing’s corporate culture, and alluded to anomalies in other parts, likely a reference to the 737 MAX aircraft crisis.

(Nxp / ats)

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