Boeing Starliner Crisis: NASA Astronauts Face Extended Stay on ISS Due to Propulsion Failures

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, members of an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), could be lost in space until 2025 due to problems with the propulsion system of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft on board. to the station.

In this way, the crisis of Boeing, which is very visible in the manufacture of civil aircraft, reaches a place and shows new problems, as designers and directors have to do with it.

These are engineering problems in the project and in the manufacturing processes and quality control, seen in the civil sector of the North American aviation giant, which culminated again in the development of the Starliner and its subsequent disturbances in the behavior of astronauts. .

The spacecraft had already shown mobility problems during the flight to the orbital platform, such as helium leaks, inert gas used to pressurize the system, and power loss in the a thrust feedback control system, which is necessary to steer the spacecraft during flight. .

This means that, even if they reach the ISS safely, the astronauts may need another spacecraft to return.

At a press conference on Wednesday, August 7, the agency gave an update on the condition of the two astronauts who have been in space for 63 days – about seven weeks longer than expected – after their launch launched on June 5.

SPACECRAFT STARLINER IMPOSSIBLE TO REMOVE

NASA members said that a decision will be made by mid-August if there is a risk that Wilmore and Williams will return on the same ship that carried them to the ISS. This requires astronauts to stay at the station longer until Starliner can take off.

The Agency’s commercial crew program manager, Steve Stich, pointed out that the spacecraft currently does not have the ability to exit the ISS automatically, so it needs to update the software, as well on what the Boeing flight control team had to do. get “additional information”.

Stich noted that the possibility of Wilmore and Williams returning aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will launch to the ISS next month, is being considered, with only two of the four crew members assigned two. This ship would have extra spacesuits for the two astronauts.

However, these would have to remain on the station until February next year, when the Crew Dragon crew returns to Earth. Stich noted that this alternative plan has not yet been formally approved. He also refused to say which of the two astronauts scheduled to fly on that mission, known as Crew-9, would be left out.

BOEING MUST GO THROUGH A CERTIFICATION PROCESS

Technical problems have resurfaced at Boeing, which reported US$883 million in Starliner production losses until October 2022. “There are growing pains in the development and flight of aircraft, we are very close”, he tried to justify Mark Nappi, ex-Boeing. president and program manager for the capsule. “This is part of the business to have these problems,” he said, in an attempt to reduce disaster.

When the mission is completed, Boeing will go through a rigorous certification process so that the Starliner is allowed to perform regular crew transport missions for NASA, as determined by the contract.

The company must start regular crew transport missions to start paying for this service. In this new relationship between NASA and the aviation giants, they get a special measure to develop the spacecraft. And NASA, instead of directly owning the spaceship, like the space shuttles, begins to pay for the ISS crew’s rotation trips.

Regarding problems with civil aviation, at the beginning of July Boeing agreed to plead guilty and pay fines ​​in the hundreds of millions of dollars in a case related to the fatal accidents that occurred with the 737 model MAX.

According to the US Department of Justice, the company broke an agreement that would protect it from lawsuits related to the accidents that occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 and killed a total of 346 people.

Prosecutors accused the American aviation giant of misleading regulatory agencies that approved the 737 MAX and the pilot training requirements needed to fly the model.