On December 20, 2019, Boeing (NYSE: BA) He made his first attempt to send an unmanned Starliner spacecraft to meet the International Space Station (ISS). A successful trip would have configured Boeing to take another test flight, this time with a crew on board, and then go through a series of lucrative “commercial crew” missions under its $ 4.3 billion contract with NASA.
But the trip did not go well.
Due to a problem with the spacecraft’s computer, Starliner was unable to start its engines at the right time, missed his appointment with the ISS, and was forced to return to Earth, without success. And as we now know, that was just one of 80 separate problems with Boeing’s launch, problems that NASA now insists that Boeing rectify, in a list of recommendations made public at a press conference last week.
If these issues are not addressed, Boeing’s $ 26 billion defense, space and security businesses could be hampered (according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data), preventing it from competing with SpaceX for future manned space flight contracts.
Boeing’s Starliner “Calypso” crew pod, back on Earth after his failed attempt to reach the ISS. Image source: NASA.
A long list of things to do
Because Boeing was unable to complete its first successful unmanned orbital flight test in December, the company agreed to rerun the test flight later this year as unmanned orbital-2 flight test (OFT-2), which implies a cost of $ 410 million in the process. To improve the chances of this test being successful, NASA has outlined 80 recommendations for Boeing. The agency did not release full details on all the items that need to be fixed last week, saying that “the full list of recommendations is confidential and proprietary to the company.”
This is what we know:
NASA recommended 21 changes to improve mission simulation and testing before OFT-2 takes off. In particular, the agency wants to see better hardware and software integration, and wants Boeing to do an “end-to-end” test of all hardware before the flight. Surprisingly, it appears that Boeing did not conduct such a test prior to its failed test flight in December, but instead tested software and hardware piecemeal. This may be the reason why Boeing did not notice that the Starliner’s on-board computer clock had 11 hours of real-time downtime, resulting in its failure to start the engines on time, resulting in in turn, the spacecraft was unable to reach the space station the last time.
The agency has 35 recommendations for making “operational and process improvements” in the surrounding area, including the addition of more outside experts to review Boeing’s test data, and six recommendations regarding “knowledge capture.” Overall, this time NASA will do more oversight of Boeing’s work.
Seven adjustments to the Starliner software code will be required, seven changes will be made to the safety reports and at least one hardware change will be made, reducing the radio frequency band in which Starliner communicates with the data tracking and retransmission satellites of the NASA (to filter out interference) will be required.
Why were so many changes, if just a glitch, the misinterpreted onboard clock, the main reason OFT-1 failed? Because it turns out that in addition to that failure, there were other nearby calls that could have caused the loss of the vehicle.
In particular, a bug in the software that controls the engines in the Starliner service module (which propels the spacecraft on its approach to the ISS, but is ruled out before the spacecraft’s “Calypso” space capsule returns. to Earth) could have caused the former to collide with the latter. after said launch, damaging Calypso to the point that it will not survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Once NASA realized that, they realized how much work remained to be done before Boeing could try again with an unmanned mission, let alone with astronauts on board.
What happens next
NASA did not set a launch date for Boeing’s OFT-2. Media reports have suggested that a second attempt could occur as early as October or November this year, followed by a crewed flight test (CFT) in 2021 if all goes well. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, confirms that work on the spacecraft “is going very well.” But still, the amount of software and other fixes to be made suggests that there is a lot of work to be done before Starliner can try to fly again.
Depending on how fast Boeing performs this work, it is likely that before Boeing sends its first batch of astronauts to the ISS, its rival SpaceX, which launched its first successful unmanned mission in March 2019, and completed its first flight. successfully manned in May 2020 – You will already be working on your second. As NASASpaceflight.com points out, SpaceX’s first “crew rotation operational mission” (Crew-1) is scheduled to fly this fall.
Will it be embarrassing for Boeing? Probably. But at this point, it’s actually the company’s best scenario. As things stand today, SpaceX is the only company (not called Roscosmos) capable of sending American astronauts into space. Until Boeing removes its OFT-2 and CFT obstacles, it will be completely excluded from this market, and all of NASA’s billions of dollars for manned space flight will be from SpaceX to take.
