Boeing Is Set To Retry A Test Flight In An Attempt To Compete With SpaceX
Boeing is set to retry a test flight in an attempt to compete with SpaceX
Tomorrow, Boeing is scheduled to launch its long-awaited Starliner spacecraft — designed to carry NASA astronauts — on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station, following the company's botched first attempt 18 months ago. This will be a watershed moment for Boeing and NASA, as the traditional aerospace giant looks to partner with SpaceX to ferry astronauts to the station.
The Starliner was scheduled to launch Friday afternoon from Florida and dock with the International Space Station on Saturday. However, when Russia's new laboratory module, Nauka, docked with the space station Thursday morning, the module's thrusters began firing unexpectedly.
Though NASA confirmed that no one was in danger and ground teams regained control of the space station within an hour, Starliner's launch will be delayed to allow mission control to "continue working checkouts of the newly arrived Nauka module and to ensure the station is prepared for Starliner's arrival."
Boeing now anticipates launching no earlier than Tuesday, August 3, though the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base says there is a 40% chance that poor weather will further delay the launch.
Boeing's Starliner test launch is one of the company's and NASA's most critical missions of the year. Boeing's spacecraft is expected to compete with SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which has already begun flying astronauts and ushered in the return of human spaceflight to the United States after a decade-long hiatus. Both Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon were developed under contract with NASA, though they will be privately owned and operated, and are intended to transport astronauts and possibly tourists to and from the International Space Station.
If everything goes according to plan during Starliner's upcoming uncrewed test mission, the capsule will spend several days in orbit — without humans aboard — and dock with the International Space Station to demonstrate that the capsule is capable of safely performing its mission. It will then parachute back to Earth and land in the New Mexico desert.
Boeing's success on this mission is critical, as the company has been working since the early 2010s to develop a spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station but has encountered numerous delays and technical difficulties.
The flight also comes as investors and customers continue to closely monitor Boeing as it deals with a series of controversies and scandals, most notably involving its 737 Max aircraft, as well as questions about its internal safety culture.
NASA and Boeing are eager to see Starliner safely complete this test run and resume normal operations.
Along with SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which has already made three trips to the International Space Station with astronauts aboard, Boeing's Starliner is expected to help usher in a new era of human spaceflight in the United States, one in which private companies, not NASA, take the reins.
What will happen
The Starliner, which will fly with an empty cabin except for a test flight dummy named Rosie and approximately 475 pounds of cargo and supplies, will launch into orbit atop an Atlas V rocket built by the joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The Atlas V rocket has an unblemished 15-year track record of launching satellites and other cargo.
The true test will occur once the Starliner spacecraft disentangles from the Atlas V rocket and begins free-flying in space. The spacecraft's onboard computers and thrusters will be used to gradually maneuver the spacecraft toward the ISS, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth.
It is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on Wednesday afternoon.
If everything goes according to plan, the seven astronauts on board the International Space Station will be able to retrieve the cargo Starliner is transporting. The vehicle will then be reloaded with nearly 600 pounds of cargo, completed science experiments, and trash for return to Earth. A successful landing could pave the way for Boeing to launch the first Starliner mission later this year with astronauts aboard.
While NASA normally compensates companies for transporting cargo to and from the space station, this flight will be free. Boeing agreed to complete this mission on its own dime following a December 2019 failure. In 2020, the company stated that it would set aside $410 million for this mission.
What happened last time
Almost immediately during Starliner's first uncrewed flight test, complications arose. The spacecraft misfired due to a software issue, sending it hurtling off course and forcing it to return to Earth without docking with the ISS.
Boeing later revealed that ground controllers lost contact with Starliner dozens of times during the mission, and the company admitted that it failed to run a complete simulation of how the spacecraft's software would operate during the mission's two major stretches — from launch to docking with the International Space Station and from undocking to landing. Such testing might have revealed Starliner's software issues prior to liftoff.
NASA launched an investigation into Boeing's safety culture in response to the incident, kicking off a months-long effort to determine precisely where and how the Starliner development program went wrong.
Boeing officials said during this week's press briefings that the spacecraft's software has been enhanced with new algorithms to assist it in quickly resolving communications blackout issues. Additionally, the company addressed more than 80 issues identified during an independent investigation, hired Jinnah Hosein, a former SpaceX engineer, as vice president of software engineering in November 2020, and is working to ensure "we were looking at hardware-software integration, not just software as a discipline," Boeing's Starliner program manager John Vollmer said.
Chris Ferguson, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Boeing and was scheduled to fly on Starliner's inaugural crewed mission but unexpectedly bowed out due to "personal reasons," said Thursday that tests of Boeing's upgraded software were "as clean as possible."
Why this matters
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is the culmination of a decade-long effort by NASA and its corporate partners to replace the Space Shuttle program, which served as the primary mode of transportation for US astronauts to space for 30 years. After the Shuttle program ended in 2011, the US was forced to rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to space and maintain a fully staffed US segment of the International Space Station, a difficult and less-than-ideal arrangement, though the countries continue to work closely in space, according to NASA.
(Since even before the first segment was launched in 1998, the International Space Station has been a joint project led by NASA and Roscosmos, and has been used primarily for science and the occasional tourist visit.)
However, rather than taking the lead in the design, development, and testing of a new spacecraft, NASA chose an unconventional route. It invited private sector firms to submit their own designs and bid on fixed-price contracts, which were eventually awarded to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014.
NASA has contracted with Boeing for $4.82 billion for this program, while SpaceX has contracted with SpaceX for $3.14 billion. (The price difference is due to the companies' bids and the stage of development of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft prior to winning those NASA contracts.)
NASA took a back seat during SpaceX and Boeing's development programs; though it remained heavily involved, supervising tests and sending in verification teams to ensure the vehicles were flight-ready.
This is a novel way of doing business for NASA's human spaceflight program, and it has been an experimental — and at times turbulent — journey.
However, as NASA advertises, the payoff is not one but two privately operated spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station while NASA concentrates on its more ambitious goals of returning astronauts to the moon and exploring deep space.
There is a significant cost benefit, according to the nonprofit exploration advocacy organization Planetary Society.
It's a "fantastic deal," the Planetary Society wrote in a 2020 analysis of the costs of NASA's human spaceflight endeavors throughout history, referring to NASA's 1960s program to launch people into space two at a time.
