Boeing Starliner

[dan_b]

You might know that about a decade ago, NASA unveiled the "Commercial Crew Service" concept for flying Astronauts to the ISS.
Boeing, and the then upstart SpaceX won the contracts.

SpaceX went with the partly-resuable Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon system, and has put Astronauts into low earth orbit 13 times now - 9 for NASA, and another 4 for private space missions. The first stage returns to the ground under powered flight and is re-used. 2nd stage burns up in the atmosphere. The capsule splashes down at sea and is re-used.

Well, after years of delays, two weeks ago, Boeing finally launched Starliner with 2 Astronauts aboard on a mission to dock with the ISS. It was successful, but during the climb uphill, concerns were raised about helium leaks.

Now, 2 weeks later, those leaks are considered serious enough that NASA has just postponed indefinitely the scheduled return back to earth of the Starliner with Astronauts on board.

There is a very real chance that they'll jettison the ship, and those 2 Astronauts will have to be taken back to earth in the Space X vehicle (one is currently docked to the ISS).

With Boeing's other issues around the 737 Max still going on, makes you wonder if this isn't a "final straw" event for the reputation of the company?

Main thing, let's hope those Astronauts can get home safely.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/06/n ... sion-data/

[John_S]

Spot on there, Dan

If it is Boeing, it ain't going.

[dan_b]

More of a balanced view in this article - but it's still leaking - and has reaction control thruster issues too!

https://www.space.com/crew-flight-test- ... e-question