Report on a failed Starliner flight: this ship is really hopeless
An independent team set up by NASA and Boeing to analyze the problems that occurred during the December Starliner test flight , i.e. a spacecraft competing with Crew Dragon, has just completed its investigation. Nobody will like his results.
NASA's media coverage included a very long list of changes that must be made before Starliner can carry astronauts into space. After completing their investigation, the panel of engineers issued 80 recommendations that must be implemented by NASA and Boeing, the most important of which seems to be the requirement to carry out full tests of all accessories before each flight.
What went wrong?
One of the main reasons for the failure of Starliner's test flight was, according to investigators, the fact that Boeing divided the ship's testing into very small elements, instead of conducting one long test in which the entire flight was simulated, from the start to the mooring to the space station itself. As a result, the company had no way of knowing that the ship's onboard computer was not calibrated, so Starliner's engines did not start and the ship entered the wrong orbit.
As if that was not enough, Boeing did not carry out a software compatibility test at all with the service module. Instead, the company used an emulator, which turned out to be emergency, which did not reveal a critical software vulnerability that led to "loss of control of the ship."
According to NASA Spaceflight , Steve Stich, manager of commercial manned flight program at NASA, found that the agency was not able to supervise Boeing accurately enough to create Starliner. For this reason, many problems, especially those related to software, were not noticed in the production process. Although NASA did not provide a full list of 80 recommendations in its press release, it did list the most important, including the need to remove each identified gap in simulations, increase the participation of experts from specific fields in all key security tests, and introduce organizational changes in the structure of reporting on security issues.
NASA and Boeing are still planning to re-conduct an unmanned test flight to the ISS later this year. Although no flight date has been set yet, the Washington Post reports that October or November may be the likely date.
Report on a failed Starliner flight: this ship is really hopeless
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