Dersom Boeing nekter å la crewet komme hjem med SpaceX, blir dette en vemmelig sak for mange. (Red.)
Boeing Not Happy With NASA Plan to Return Stranded Astronauts on SpaceX
Craft
Yet another crisis for Boeing.
NASA
/ Futurism
Bucket of Bolts
NASA is still
hemming and hawing over how to return its two
astronauts currently stranded on board the International Space Station.
Rumors continue to swirl that the space agency is considering making
room for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon
spacecraft, which is now
scheduled to arrive at the station in late
September.
And as the Wall Street Journal reports, that potential plan has enraged Boeing officials as tensions continue
to grow — and time is
running out.
According to the WSJ, a review of Starliner's
readiness for its return flight was postponed, suggesting not everybody at NASA
is convinced that it's safe to fly.
That's in stark contrast to Boeing, which has
been adamant that Starliner is ready to safely
carry Williams and Wilmore back to Earth — a hairy situation for the aerospace
giant, which has already
been embroiled in controversy for
years over its passenger jets failing
in several ways.
Risker Act
Boeing's Starliner managed to sputter
to the space station in early June, despite springing
several helium leaks affecting its propulsion system.
Ever since, engineers have been poring over the data and testing spare engines
back on the ground in an effort to pinpoint the problem.
In the face of it all, an official return date for Wilmore and Williams
has yet to materialize just over two months into what was initially supposed to
be a two-week trip to the ISS.
For its part, NASA has yet to make a decision on which spacecraft to use
for their return. The stakes are high: Boeing's total losses on Starliner have grown
to a whopping $1.6 billion, and both it and NASA
have committed a total of $6.7 billion to the program since 2010.
That's at least twice
as expensive as SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which has
reliably been doing the exact same job that Starliner is supposed to do for
years now.
In short, the agency is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It'll
need to either risk Williams and Wilmore's lives by sending them back on board
Boeing's leaking Starliner, or undercut its multi-billion dollar contract with
Boeing by opting for a ride from SpaceX instead — an admission that NASA's
over-budget and much-delayed alternative to SpaceX's Dragon still isn't
ready.
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar
Merk: Bare medlemmer av denne bloggen kan legge inn en kommentar.