What Exactly Went Wrong With Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft
It’s nearly been a decade since Boeing was awarded a hefty $4.2 billion contract from NASA to develop a spacecraft capable of transporting humans to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, in that time period, not only has the vehicle still yet to carry humans once, but it has consistently run into different complications. This begs the question of how a leading aerospace company had so much trouble with this contract.
At the same time as Boeing has continued to try and develop the vehicle, SpaceX has been sending humans to space for years now. When NASA originally picked these companies, they certainly didn’t expect Boeing to end up being the riskier and delayed option. In reality, a combination of test anomalies and frequent mistakes has delayed Starliner’s first crewed launch by years.
These issues have even brought up the possibility of abandoning the Starliner program as it only gets more and more expensive for Boeing to run. A future the company is trying very hard to avoid after investing so much time and money over the last 10 years. Here I will go more in-depth into some of the company’s main issues, problems with Starliner, what the future holds, and more.
A Costly Mistake
After the last Space Shuttle mission, NASA was not in a good position. The agency was without a launch vehicle capable of transporting humans to the ISS. For nearly the next decade, they relied on Russia and the Soyuz rocket to transport American astronauts to the station. At the time NASA knew they needed a commercial vehicle to support local launches. The agency looked at all its options and decided Boeing and SpaceX would be the best bet. They awarded Boeing $4.2 billion and SpaceX $2.6 billion.
Since then, the two companies have taken very different trajectories. SpaceX managed to certify the spacecraft and launch humans back in May 2020. This early lead has been very profitable for the company as since receiving the initial contract amount, they have gained an additional $1.4 billion through over 5 missions.
On the other hand, Boeing has racked up over $1.4 billion in charges since being awarded the contract. After the initial contract was awarded, large delays and technical problems that pushed back this project cost the company in the form of charges. Nearly every year there has been a different charge from NASA. For example, in 2016 they were charged $162 million, $57 million in 2018, $489 million in 2019, and this kept going to the most recent change this year of $257 million.
Despite these costs and concerns, the company is set on completing the vehicle. John Shannon, the vice president of Boeing Exploration Systems, which has oversight of Starliner and the company’s space programs, said in an interview that despite the enormous costs, the company will not abandon the program.” He continued by saying, “For a government contract like that you just never see that kind of investment,” he said. “And trying to take the very top level view of it, it’s important, I think, to the country to have an American capability to fly crew. SpaceX is doing that now. We’ll be the second one.”
While he said the company didn’t plan to abandon the spacecraft, he did somewhat question its future. Specifically, when asked whether Boeing plans to continue with the program long-term, he responded, “It’s a great question. And I wish I had the answer to it right now.” These comments highlight some of the uncertainty surrounding the program as problems continue to pile up.
Frequent Complications
With all these costs and issues in mind, we can now look at specific examples that have pushed this program back. Only months ago, Boeing was working toward the first crewed launch this year. At one point they were only a few weeks away when things took a turn. They found two problems which included the parachute safety margin and the use of flammable tape within the vehicle.
Specifically, the issue had to do with “soft links” in the parachutes that were weaker than expected, preventing the overall parachute system from achieving the factor of safety required for crewed flights. As for the tape, Nappi said, is flammable and there are “hundreds” of feet of it inside Starliner. This obviously creates a big problem as in most cases, anything that goes into space is made as flameproof as possible. During recent tests, it was discovered that under certain circumstances possible in flight, this tape is flammable. After these issues were found, they suggested that by the end of this year they could launch. However, during a teleconference in August, we learned that Boeing has delayed the first flight of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle with astronauts on board to no earlier than March 2024 as the company continues to work on issues with the spacecraft’s parachutes and wiring. Officials highlighted that progress was going very well however they need more time to address each problem.
While these are some of the most recent issues, they join a long list of others. Starting in December 2019, the first uncrewed orbital test flight took place, but after deployment, an 11-hour offset in the mission clock of Starliner caused the spacecraft to compute that “it was in an orbital insertion burn”, when it wasn’t. This caused the attitude control thrusters to consume more fuel than planned, precluding a docking with the International Space Station. The spacecraft eventually landed at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, two days after launch.
To the displeasure of both NASA and Boeing, it was determined that two software errors detected during the test, one of which prevented a planned docking with the International Space Station, could each have led to the destruction of the spacecraft, had they not been caught and corrected in time, NASA said on February 7, 2020. A joint NASA–Boeing investigation team found that “the two critical software defects were not detected ahead of flight despite multiple safeguards”, according to an agency statement. “Ground intervention prevented the loss of the vehicle in both cases”. Before re-entry, engineers discovered the second critical software error that affected the thruster firings needed to safely jettison the Starliner’s service module. The service module software error “incorrectly translated” the jettison thruster firing sequence.
In order to try and make sure this didn’t happen again, the review team identified 80 recommendations that Boeing, in collaboration with NASA, was addressing in 2020, when action plans for each were already well under way. Since the full list of these recommendations are company-sensitive and proprietary, only those changes publicly disclosed are known.
Moving on, Boeing modified the design of the Starliner docking system prior to OFT-2 to add a re-entry cover for additional protection during the capsule’s fiery descent through the atmosphere. This re-entry cover is hinged, like the SpaceX design. Teams also installed the OFT-2 spacecraft’s propellant heater, thermal-protection tiles, and the airbags used to cushion the capsule’s landing.
During the August 2021 launch window, some issues were detected with 13 propulsion-system valves in the spacecraft prior to launch. The spacecraft had already been mated to its launch rocket, United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V, and taken to the launchpad. Attempts to fix the problem while on the launchpad failed, and the rocket was returned to the ULA’s VIF (Vertical Integration Facility). Attempts to fix the problem at the VIF also failed, and Boeing decided to return the spacecraft to the factory, thus canceling the launch at that launch window. There was a commercial dispute between Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne over responsibility for fixing the problem. The valves had been corroded by the intrusion of moisture, which interacted with the propellant, but the source of the moisture was not apparent. By late September 2021, Boeing had not determined the root cause of the problem, and the flight was delayed indefinitely. By October 2021, NASA and Boeing continued to make progress and were “working toward launch opportunities in the first half of 2022”. In December 2021, Boeing decided to replace the entire service module and anticipated OFT-2 to occur in May 2022.
Eventually, the OFT-2 mission launched on May 19, 2022. It again carried Rosie the Rocketeer test dummy suited in the blue Boeing inflight spacesuit. Two Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control System (OMACS) thrusters failed during the orbital insertion burn, but the spacecraft was able to compensate using the remaining OMACS thrusters with the addition of the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters. A couple of RCS thrusters used to maneuver Starliner also failed during docking due to low chamber pressure. Some thermal systems used to cool the spacecraft showed extra cold temperatures, requiring engineers to manage it during the docking. These past complications sum up the majority of Starliner’s history and have led it to where it is today.
When asked why Boeing is struggling with the Spacecraft, some NASA officials blame the way the commercial crew program was set up. “That commercial model is not exactly the way Boeing was structured,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in an interview. “So, they’ve had to work through that and make sure that they’re resourcing it, and, you know, it’s tough. You’ve got to put a lot of skin in the game. That’s not the way they’ve been structured from the beginning” she said.
Conclusion
Boeing is still trying to get Starliner ready and capable of carrying humans. Past issues have cost the company nearly $1.5 billion in chargers, a pattern they are hoping to stop in the near future. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.