NASA Grapples with ‘Disagreement’ on Boeing Starliner Safety

NASA officials have recently acknowledged internal “disagreement” regarding the reliability of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to safely return two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.

Ars Technica reports that in an unprecedented move, NASA has publicly discussed the ongoing debate within the agency about the safety of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The primary concern revolves around the reliability of the vehicle’s 28 reaction control system thrusters, which are crucial for precise maneuvering and pointing of the spacecraft. The thrusters, provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne, have come under scrutiny after five of them failed during Starliner’s ascent to the space station. The Starliner has left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) with no plan yet to safely fly them home.

NASA’s chief of space human spaceflight operations, Ken Bowersox, described the internal discussions as “healthy” but admitted that disagreements can sometimes be “painful.” The space agency has been working on various contingency plans, including the possibility of a rescue mission using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. This potential rescue mission would involve launching the Crew-9 mission with only two astronauts instead of four, allowing the stranded astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to join the “increment” on the space station and return to Earth in February 2025.

The decision to fly the astronauts back on Starliner hinges on NASA engineers becoming more comfortable with the thruster performance uncertainty. If chosen, the return flight would occur during the second half of August or the first part of September. However, if the concerns persist, NASA may opt for the SpaceX rescue mission. A final decision is expected by mid-August.

To better understand the thruster issues, Boeing and NASA have conducted ground and space-based tests to replicate the failure and identify the root cause. While the tests have demonstrated similar failures, engineers are still grappling with the precise reason behind the bulging in a Teflon seal within the oxidizer valve, which could restrict the flow of nitrogen tetroxide propellant. Boeing engineers advocate for flying Starliner as is, believing that enough is known about the problem to prevent failures during the return to Earth. However, during meetings of key NASA engineers, no agreement was reached on the flight rationale’s sufficiency for safely flying crew on the vehicle.

Another concern is the need to reconfigure the software package on board Starliner to enable safe undocking without crew. This reconfiguration would require reverting to software parameters used two years ago, before the integration of crew operations. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, confirmed that testing this configuration change would take about four weeks.

Read more at Ars Technica here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.