![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1957742225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks to reporters during a visit to Capitol Hill in Washington on January 24, 2024.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
Probes into those accidents revealed Boeing cut corners and hid flaws from regulators and pilots in its design of the 737 Max, meant to keep the company competitive with new-generation airplanes produced by its European rival Airbus. Then, in January, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 airplane blew out in flight, causing a rapid decompression and forcing an emergency landing.<\/p>\n
Everyone onboard survived, but the incident triggered a government investigation that revealed bolts meant to hold the door plug to the side of the airplane were missing. The bolts were apparently missing when the new 737 Max 9 left Boeing\u2019s factory last year, and the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board reported earlier this month that Boeing has no records of the work to install the door plug.<\/p>\n
In a report released by the Federal Aviation Administration last month, a panel of experts found that Boeing\u2019s safety culture was \u201cinadequate and confusing.\u201d The panel also noted a \u201clack of pilot input in aircraft design and operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t expect perfection<\/h2>\n
Starliner, too, has not been immune from technical problems, oversights, and delays. Wilmore, Starliner\u2019s first commander, told Ars he is not worried about troubles in Boeing\u2019s airplane division spilling over to the Starliner program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose don\u2019t cross,\u201d Wilmore said in an interview with Ars. \u201cThey may have some engineering expertise where they cross, but they\u2019ve got people working the space part, and they\u2019ve got people working (airplanes).\u201d<\/p>\n Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the two NASA astronauts training to fly on Starliner, pose with their mission patch at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n Credit: Boeing runs its commercial airplane business as a separate division from the units that build spacecraft or military aircraft. But the company has tried to lump these unrelated programs together before. In 2015, Boeing announced the establishment of an organization to manage the development of two of its flagship space projects\u2014Starliner and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket\u2014alongside the 777X commercial airplane, the Air Force\u2019s KC-46 refueling tanker, and the next-generation Air Force One presidential aircraft.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n At the time, Boeing said the new organization, patterned on commercial airplane development, would help \u201cbreak the cost curve\u201d on these programs. It would also allow the company to \u201cmore effectively apply engineering expertise, development program best practices, and program management and integration from across Boeing to our most important development activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Several of these programs have been financial losers for Boeing. The company has taken $2.4 billion in losses on its fixed-price contract with the Air Force to convert two 747s into presidential transports and more than $7 billion in charges on the Air Force\u2019s KC-46 tanker program, which is also based on a fixed-price contract. To date, Boeing is $1.4 billion in the red on the Starliner program.<\/p>\n By contrast, Boeing\u2019s SLS contract with NASA is a cost-plus arrangement, meaning the contractor is not on the hook for cost overruns. Instead, the financial risk is transferred to US taxpayers. The Boeing-built SLS core stage, while costly, behind schedule, and expendable, performed almost perfectly on NASA\u2019s Artemis I test flight in 2022, a precursor to future human flights to the Moon.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a culture in any company, any organization, that is set from the higher-up,\u201d Wilmore said. \u201cSo there\u2019s some of that, but there\u2019s none of that from the other part (commercial airplanes) that I would say is \u2026 even a consideration (for Starliner).\u201d<\/p>\n Wilmore and Williams are used to taking calculated risks. Both are veteran US Navy test pilots, and each has flown to space twice before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be sitting here if we didn\u2019t feel, and tell our families that we feel, confident in this spacecraft and our capabilities to control it,\u201d Williams said in a press conference Friday.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n While the astronauts are confident in Starliner\u2019s safety, this mission\u2019s purpose is to wring out any problems before Boeing and NASA declare the spacecraft ready for operational service.<\/p>\n Astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) inside a Starliner simulator at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n Credit: \u201cThe expectation from the media should not be perfection,\u201d Wilmore said. \u201cThis is a test flight. Flying and operating in space is hard. It\u2019s really hard, and we\u2019re going to find some stuff. That\u2019s expected. It\u2019s the first flight where we are integrating the full capabilities of this spacecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside observers, Wilmore said, \u201cdon\u2019t realize that there are flights going on with F-18s back in the day, or the T-45s that I flew, where we found stuff and fixed it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get visibility in those programs and those flights,\u201d he said. \u201cThis one is visible, especially with some of the things that have transpired. So don\u2019t have that expectation, please. It\u2019s not going to be perfect. But it\u2019s not going to be bad, either. We wouldn\u2019t go if we thought that\u2026 It\u2019s going to be things that are rectifiable. And the whole thing is to get up, get to the space station, and get back, and we\u2019re going to show that it has that capability.\u201d<\/p>\n The test flight is a final step before NASA formally approves Starliner for regular six-month crew rotation flights to the space station, each carrying four astronauts. SpaceX, NASA\u2019s other commercial crew contractor, has provided this service since 2020.<\/p>\n With Starliner, NASA will have two human-rated orbital spaceships available at the same time, something the agency has never had before. Getting Starliner online will also reduce NASA\u2019s reliance on Russia\u2019s Soyuz as a backup option for crew transportation.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s commercial crew program manager, said Friday that the space agency is in the \u201cfinal cusp\u201d of certifying and human-rating the Starliner spacecraft for the upcoming astronaut test flight. Engineers have data from two unpiloted Starliner test flights, a launch abort demonstration, and extensive ground testing that show the spacecraft should meet NASA\u2019s safety standards.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my perspective, so far, it seems like we\u2019ve looked at everything,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done, in many cases, independent analysis, which we do the same thing for (SpaceX\u2019s) Dragon relative to landing loads, abort performance, rendezvous and docking, all those sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting to this point has been a slog for Boeing and NASA. The first orbital test flight of Starliner in 2019, without a crew inside, ended prematurely after a software problem caused its mission clock to have the wrong time. This caused the capsule to burn more fuel than expected after arriving in space, preventing it from reaching the space station.<\/p>\n Corroded valves inside Starliner\u2019s propulsion system caused another delay in 2021 when Boeing was about to launch a redo of the troubled 2019 test flight. Finally, in May 2022, Boeing successfully launched and docked a Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station, then returned the capsule to Earth.<\/p>\n Engineers addressed relatively minor problems with thrusters and Starliner\u2019s cooling system discovered on the 2021 test flight, and Boeing appeared to be on track to launch the Crew Flight Test last summer. But like a game of whack-a-mole,<\/em> preflight readiness reviews uncovered more problems with Starliner\u2019s parachutes and the presence of flammable tape inside the spacecraft, prompting another delay of nearly a year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can safely say those issues are behind us,\u201d said Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s Starliner program manager.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n NASA and Boeing officials took this extra time to complete additional integrated software testing and introduce an upgraded parachute design that previously was not supposed to fly on Starliner until a later mission.<\/p>\n Stich said the agency has close oversight of Boeing on the Starliner program.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had people side by side inspecting the tape, inspecting the wiring after the tape was removed, making sure that was done properly, same thing with parachutes. So, the process is a little different than aviation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking two spacecraft that are going to fly multiple missions. So a lot individual care and feeding goes into every single one of those spacecraft, and NASA is side by side with Boeing.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA is still reviewing data on Boeing\u2019s redesigned parachutes, although Stich said the last parachute test \u201cgave us a heck of a lot of confidence in that system.\u201d NASA is also completing an independent analysis of the Starliner\u2019s launch-abort system, but like the parachutes, Stich said he expects to finalize the agency\u2019s approval of that system by April.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chief engineers are now sitting down with every single one of their disciplines to ask those very questions. Have we missed something? Are you worried about something? Do you think there\u2019s an area we need to do a little more work in?\u201d Stich said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Boeing technicians at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are loading the Starliner spacecraft with propellants ahead of its target launch date of May 1. This is the same crew capsule that flew into orbit on the unpiloted test flight in 2019. Once fueling is complete, ground teams will transfer the capsule from Boeing\u2019s factory around April 10 over to a vertical hangar at ULA\u2019s launch pad a few miles away at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where ULA will lift it atop the already-assembled Atlas V rocket.<\/p>\n Assuming all these milestones go off without a hitch, the Atlas V will roll out to its launch pad a couple of days before liftoff. Then, late on April 30, Wilmore and Williams will put on their solid blue pressure suits and strap into Starliner for launch at 12:55 am EDT (04:55 UTC) on May 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOUSTON\u2014While it doesn\u2019t have the same relevance to public consciousness as safety problems with commercial airliners, a successful test flight of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft in May would be welcome news for the beleaguered aerospace company. This will be the first time the Starliner capsule flies into low-Earth orbit with humans aboard. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[564,670,524,9721,1545,190,1306],"class_list":["post-45341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aviation","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-crew","tag-dave-calhoun","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-nasa","tag-starliner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/cftcrew.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Clark\/Ars Technica<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/53567594826_e21046f7be_k.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n NASA\/Robert Markowitz<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCertifying for crew<\/h2>\n