\n
\n This photo provided by NASA shows Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on July 3, 2024. The capsule launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the I.S.S. but now they’ll return to Earth on a Space Crew Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n
AP\/NASA<\/p>\n
<\/b>hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n AP\/NASA<\/p>\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The moment NASA announced that the crew of Boeing\u2019s Starliner will return to Earth next year on a ship built by the company\u2019s rival, SpaceX, the questions began.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
NASA administrator Bill Nelson was asked how confident he was that Boeing\u2019s spaceship would ever fly with a crew again.<\/p>\n
\u201c100%,\u201d Nelson replied without hesitation. Nelson said he had just spoken to Boeing\u2019s CEO before the press conference in Houston on Saturday, who assured him that \u201cthey intend to move forward and fly Starliner in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everybody is so sure.<\/p>\n
Starliner will return from space as soon as next week. But the two astronauts who blasted off in June for what was supposed to be eight day mission at the International Space Station will now stay for eight months because of glitches that cropped up during the test flight.<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nIt\u2019s another blow for Boeing in what\u2019s been a brutal year<\/u> for the aerospace giant, and observers say it could have big implications for the company\u2019s future in space.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBoeing is going to need to grapple with the consequences of the failure of this mission to achieve its test objectives,\u201d said Todd Harrison, a space industry veteran who\u2019s now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n
Boeing has changed since the contract for Starliner was awarded a decade ago, Harrison said, becoming less focused on human spaceflight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fairly likely Boeing will, within a few weeks or months, come to the conclusion that they just need to step back\u201d from Starliner, he said. \u201cThis program kind of sticks out as something that doesn’t fit with the rest of their business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n NASA\u2019s Boeing Crew Flight Test Commander Butch Wilmore (L) and Pilot Suni Williams are shown heading to the launchpad for a mission to the International Space Station on June 5, 2024. The flight was supposed to last about eight days \u2014 but will now be about eight months for the astronauts.<\/p>\n
Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
<\/b>hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
That would be a momentous shift for a company with a storied history in space that stretches back decades.<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, Boeing got the lion\u2019s share of funding for NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program \u2014 more than $4 billion, while the upstart SpaceX got only $2.6 billion. Boeing has since lost an additional $1.6 billion on Starliner.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s goal all along was to have more than one private company that could get astronauts and equipment into orbit and back. Boeing\u2019s struggles with Starliner make that strategy look smart.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis really proves that you do need redundancy,\u201d said Makena Young, a fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cSometimes things go wrong and you need that second plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young thinks it\u2019s too soon to know if Boeing will walk away from the Starliner program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not a failure just yet,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe very well could still see a success of this system, if it’s able to get back to Earth and land safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nSpace is a relatively small piece of Boeing\u2019s portfolio. The company\u2019s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg<\/u>, has other pressing problems, like turning around the company\u2019s commercial airline business after major safety and quality control lapses.<\/p>\n
The engineering challenges there are very different, but observers say there are some parallels as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost all of Boeing’s problems are cultural,\u201d says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation industry analyst at AeroDynamic Advisory. \u201cIt’s a management team that was completely disconnected from the folks who actually did the design, integration and manufacture of the company’s products. That’s a recipe for trouble. And you’ve seen it in jetliners and defense products and now, of course, in space systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boeing has not said much publicly about Starliner.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n NASA Associate Administrator James Free (L-R), Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox, Commercial Crew Manager Steve Stich and International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel speak during a news conference to discuss plans to return two astronauts who remain stranded at the International Space Station, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mark Felix\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
<\/b>hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n Mark Felix\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI know this is not the decision we had hoped for, but we stand ready to carry out the actions necessary to support NASA’s decision,\u201d wrote Mark Nappi, the head of Boeing\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, in an internal email that was shared by the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus remains first and foremost on ensuring the safety of the crew and spacecraft,\u201d Nappi said. \u201cI have the utmost confidence in this team to prepare Starliner for a safe and successful uncrewed return with the same level of professionalism and determination as you did the first half of the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Boeing maintained that the astronauts could have returned safely on Starliner. NASA officials decided not to take that chance. But they did try to put a good spin on NASA\u2019s relationship with Boeing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the key word is partner,\u201d said NASA\u2019s Ken Bowersox during the weekend press conference. \u201cA lot of people want to focus on the contractual relationship where we’re buying something from a company. This isn’t completely like that, right? We have a contract with Boeing, but it’s to work together to develop this capability for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nThat partnership between Boeing and NASA continues for now. But the International Space Station is set to be decommissioned in 2030. It\u2019s possible that partnership could end with it \u2014 if not sooner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This photo provided by NASA shows Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on July 3, 2024. The capsule launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":787932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-npr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=787931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/787932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=787931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=787931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=787931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"In](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/4000x4000+1082+0\/resize\/100\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F4a%2F7c%2Fd28ddfc944f7bba8487e4ebccc5c%2Fap24236752628166.jpg\")
<\/picture>\n