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+--- Thread: Let's look back at Boeing's long struggle of problems to launch humans on Starliner (/thread-15816.html)
Let's look back at Boeing's long struggle of problems to launch humans on Starliner - C C - May 3, 2024
Let's look back at Boeing's 10-year struggle to launch humans on Starliner
https://gizmodo.com/review-boeing-nasa-starliner-program-1851448548
EXCERPTS: After more than a decade of delays and failures, Boeing is finally ready to launch its first crew of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff of the Starliner CST-100 spacecraft is scheduled for May 6—and it’s going to be a true nail-biter.
Boeing’s Crewed Flight Test (CFT) will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS. The company’s Starliner spacecraft will ride atop the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket, and launch is currently targeted for 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
It’s been quite a journey to get to this point, and there’s a lot riding on the success of the upcoming test flight. Boeing has yet to meet the end of its $4.3 billion Commercial Crew Program contract with NASA. The company has fallen behind schedule and its last two test flights were marred by glitches. For its upcoming flight, Starliner will carry a crew for the first time after having recently resolved two major safety hazards discovered on the spacecraft.
In brief, it’s a hot mess. Let’s take a look back at how this inaugural crewed test flight came to be.
In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing and SpaceX contracts to provide launch services for crew and cargo to the ISS...
[...] At the time the contracts were handed out, Boeing was a much stronger contender in the aerospace industry ... Despite decades of aerospace experience, Boeing botched Starliner’s first test flight in 2019...
[...] The second uncrewed test, OFT-2, was initially scheduled for August 2021 but was postponed multiple times due to valve issues in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. ... In May 2022, Boeing was finally ready to launch Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), a second uncrewed test flight of its Starliner spacecraft. OFT-2 suffered a few hiccups...
[...] Boeing’s upcoming CFT will mark the third orbital test flight of the spacecraft overall, but the incessant stream of issues and ongoing delays made us feel like it was never going to happen. Boeing’s crewed Starliner launch was initially set for February 2023, then postponed to late April, and finally rescheduled for July 21, 2023. By that point, Boeing’s losses for the Starliner program had reached a staggering $1.1 billion.
A few weeks before liftoff, however, the company announced that it was standing down from the launch attempt to address newfound issues with the crew vehicle...
[...] In March 2024, Boeing announced that it had resolved the safety issues and that its Starliner was all set to carry the astronauts to the ISS. For Boeing, the stakes are now higher than ever given the presence of a crew; a failure with Starliner this time around would be catastrophic... (MORE - missing details)