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Related article<\/span> How SpaceX and NASA overcame a bitter culture clash to bring back US astronaut launches<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll launch when we\u2019re ready,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
If successful, the Starliner will join SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft in making routine trips to the space station, keeping the orbiting outpost fully staffed with astronauts from NASA and its partner space agencies. <\/p>\n
Such a scenario \u2014 with both Crew Dragon and Starliner flying regularly \u2014 is one for which the US space agency has long waited. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is history in the making,\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said of the upcoming Starliner mission during a March 22 news conference. \u201cWe\u2019re now in the golden era of space exploration.\u201d <\/p>\n
SpaceX and Boeing developed their respective vehicles under NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, a partnership with private industry contractors. From the outset, the space agency aimed to have both companies operating at once. The Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft would each serve as a backup to the other, giving astronauts the option to keep flying, even if technical issues or other setbacks grounded one spacecraft. <\/p>\n
NASA did not initially envision, however, that SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon would operate on its own for nearly four years before Boeing\u2019s Starliner reached its first crewed test flight. <\/p>\n
In the earliest days of the program, which awarded SpaceX and Boeing contracts in 2014, NASA had favored Boeing \u2014 a close partner dating back to the mid-20th century \u2014 over SpaceX, which the federal agency saw as a relatively young and capricious upstart. <\/p>\n
Boeing, SpaceX and NASA\u2019s vision<\/h3>\n
As recently as 2016, NASA was planning its schedule with the view that the Starliner would beat the Crew Dragon to the launchpad. <\/p>\n
But the race between Boeing and SpaceX took a clear turn by 2020. Missteps riddled a Starliner test flight the prior year, leaving NASA and Boeing officials scrambling to figure out what went wrong. The Starliner did not dock with the space station on that mission due to software problems, including an issue with the spacecraft\u2019s internal clock, which was off by 11 hours. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, SpaceX made history in May 2020 with the launch of its Demo-2 test flight, carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a two-month mission to the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon has been flying routine trips ever since, carrying NASA astronauts and even paying customers and tourists. The spacecraft has now flown 13 crewed missions to orbit. <\/p>\n
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Related article<\/span> Boeing mission to send NASA astronauts to space station faces more lengthy delays<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Boeing, however, has spent several years contending with a string of challenges, including a list of issues that were uncovered in 2022 during the spacecraft\u2019s second uncrewed test flight. Boeing\u2019s commercial airplane division also has faced a series of scandals \u2014 including the 737 Max crisis and the recent quality control issues highlighted after a door plug blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January \u2014 that have damaged the company\u2019s brand. <\/p>\n
NASA officials at one point in 2020 even admitted that they had turned more scrutiny toward SpaceX and its unorthodox ways, while issues with Boeing\u2019s Starliner slipped through the cracks. <\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps we didn\u2019t have as many people embedded in that process as we should have,\u201d Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program manager, said at a July 2020 news conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one provider (SpaceX) has a newer approach than another, it\u2019s often natural for a human being to spend more time on that newer approach, and maybe we didn\u2019t quite take the time we needed with (Boeing\u2019s) more traditional approach.\u201d <\/p>\n
Boeing\u2019s space division operates separately from its commercial airline team, and officials at NASA and the US aerospace giant have routinely sought to make that distinction. <\/p>\n
NASA officials have also made clear they are working more closely with Boeing than ever, with personnel on the ground at Boeing facilities overseeing some of the fixes the company has put in place ahead of the upcoming Starliner flight. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important capability for NASA. We signed up to go do this, and we\u2019re gonna go do it and be successful at it,\u201d Nappi said Thursday. \u201cI don\u2019t think of it in terms of what\u2019s important for Boeing as much as I think of it as in terms of what\u2019s important for this program.\u201d <\/p>\n
Still, Boeing and NASA have had a long list of issues to address. <\/p>\n
During the last flight test in 2022, for example, engineers found that the suspension lines on the Starliner\u2019s parachute had a lower threshold for failure than initially expected. <\/p>\n
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Related article<\/span> NASA says it expected space station garbage to burn up. The debris smashed into a Florida home instead<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n NASA and Boeing engineers tested a fix for that issue earlier this year, but parachutes will remain top of mind as they work through some last-minute checkouts before liftoff, Stich said Thursday. <\/p>\n
Some tape that was also used to protect wiring harnesses was found to be flammable, and Boeing had to remove and replace about a mile\u2019s worth of the material, according to Nappi. <\/p>\n
Boeing may even need to implement a redesign of some of the spacecraft\u2019s valves because of corrosion issues. That upgrade, however, is not expected to be in place until the second crewed flight, slated for 2025, at the earliest. <\/p>\n
On May\u2019s inaugural crewed flight, Boeing will instead use a \u201cperfectly acceptable mitigation\u201d that should prevent the valves from sticking, Nappi said in March. <\/p>\n
Starliner and safety<\/h3>\n
Despite the long path to the launchpad, the two people at the center of the Starliner\u2019s first crewed mission \u2014 Williams and Wilmore, two longtime NASA astronauts \u2014 said as they arrived at the launch site that they are as confident as ever. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the general public to think it\u2019s easy, but it\u2019s not \u2014 it\u2019s way hard,\u201d Wilmore said after arriving at Starliner\u2019s launch site in Florida on Thursday. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be here if we weren\u2019t ready. We are ready. The spacecraft\u2019s ready, and the teams are ready.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wilmore mentioned at a March news conference that he is not expecting the Starliner spacecraft to enter any \u201cfailure modes.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Related article<\/span> 5 ways the Columbia disaster changed spaceflight forever<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut if something were to occur \u2014 because we\u2019re all humans, we can\u2019t build things perfectly \u2014 if something were to occur, we have several downgrade modes,\u201d he said during the news conference, referring to modes that give the astronauts the ability to take more manual control over the spacecraft if something doesn\u2019t go to plan. <\/p>\n
Williams said during a March news event, \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be sitting here if we didn\u2019t feel \u2014 and tell our families that we feel \u2014 confident in this spacecraft and our capabilities to control it.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added during the Thursday news briefing in Florida, \u201cI have all the confidence in not only our capabilities and the spacecraft\u2019s capabilities, but also our mission control team, who\u2019s ready for the challenge.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
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After years of delays and a dizzying array of setbacks during test flights, Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft is finally set to make its inaugural crewed launch. The mission is on track to take off from Florida as soon as May 6, carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station, marking what could <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}