NASA delays Boeing Starliner's debut crewed voyage

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings

23/03/2023 22:05

By Joey Roulette
       WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - Boeing's first mission
carrying astronauts to space aboard its Starliner capsule has
been delayed until at least the summer, a NASA official said on
Thursday, as people familiar with the matter said last-minute
tests and technical debates nixed a plan for an April launch. 
    Previously planned for late April, the Starliner mission is
now slated to launch after a private astronaut mission scheduled
for May "as teams assess readiness and complete verification
work" for the spacecraft, NASA's space operations chief Kathy
Lueders said on Twitter. She did not provide further details
about reasons for the delay.
    Starliner's debut crewed mission, which will carry commander
Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, to the International
Space Station will be a crucial moment for Boeing's space unit.
It represents the spacecraft's final testflight before joining
rival SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule as the second NASA-approved
ride to orbit.
    Steve Stich, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in
an interview with Reuters before the delay was announced that
the certification process for the spacecraft had taken "a little
longer than we expected" and was "a whole lotta work."     
    A successful 10-day test mission with Starliner docked to
the space station, an orbital research lab some 250 miles high
in Earth's orbit, would mark a crucial milestone. Boeing has
struggled to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the nascent
market for private astronaut flights. 
    Finding a new launch date after April is complicated by
heavy traffic at the space station over the next few months and
a tight schedule for Starliner's launch provider, the
Boeing-Lockheed  LMT.N  joint venture United Launch Alliance,
Boeing and NASA officials have said.      
    The delay comes as Boeing and NASA performed extra testing
on several areas of the spacecraft.
    Boeing software engineers are running tests with Starliner's
manual flight system used as a backup in case the spacecraft's
automated flight software fails, Stich said. 
    A Boeing spokesman said the focus for that testing is for 
"added redundancy in cases of emergency." 
    Deliberations about mission-critical lithium ion batteries
and the low chance they overheat while the spacecraft is docked
to the station also took more time than expected, Stich said.
    In a recent pre-flight technical meeting with Boeing and
NASA officials, the space station's chief safety officer and
representatives from NASA's astronaut office disagreed with
Boeing's plans to proceed with the mission citing concerns over
the batteries, according to a person who attended the meetings.
    But those NASA officials eventually agreed with Boeing and
others at the federal space agency that the chances of a battery
mishap that would endanger the crew were low, said the person
who requested anonymity to discuss preflight deliberations.
    Boeing also is weighing battery redesigns and a plan to add
shielding in case one overheats, Stich said. SpaceX, which has
already flown seven crewed missions for NASA since 2020,
redesigned its spacecraft's batteries at one point, he said. 
    "Of course, they have the luxury of having a lot of battery
expertise at Tesla TSLA.O ," Stich said, referring to the
electric carmaker Musk leads.    
    Boeing in a statement said on Wednesday it has had no issues
with Starliner's batteries during tests.
        "Boeing has conducted more than a dozen Starliner
battery thermal runaway tests, stressing the battery cells
beyond their intended limit. No issue has surfaced," the company
said.
  
    Stich acknowledged there had been "a little disagreement"
during the meetings over how a potential failure of one of the
battery's cells could spread to other cells. He said there have
been no test failures, but added sometimes a cell got "a little
out of balance" during past tests.
    The Starliner battery concerns and expected upgrades, which
had not been previously reported, would add to a growing to-do
list of tests and redesigns Boeing has faced before it embarks
on the long-awaited operational phase of its NASA contract: six
astronaut missions over the next few years.
    NASA has overseen Starliner's development under a $4.5
billion contract awarded in 2014. Some 80 software failures cut
short an initial, uncrewed Starliner test flight in 2019. The
capsule made a successful repeat of that mission in 2022.
    Boeing also plans to redesign a system that separates
Starliner's main crew module from its service module, a trunk
section containing thrusters that is ditched before the
spacecraft returns to Earth, Stich said.
    Federal procurement data shows NASA has agreed to pay Boeing
at least $24.8 million for the upgrade of that system.
    Boeing last year also opted to redesign valves on
Starliner's propulsion system to prevent them from sticking shut
prior to launch, which caused a lengthy delay in 2021. 
    NASA and Boeing's aim to have the valves redesigned for
future missions initiated a dispute with Boeing's propulsion
system supplier. Aerojet Rocketdyne AJRD.N  blamed Boeing for
the problems, refusing to pay for the redesign, Reuters reported
last year.
    Boeing has now cut Aerojet from the redesign process and is
working directly with Aerojet's valve supplier, New Jersey-based
company Marotta, said a person involved in the process who asked
not to be identified. 
    Aerojet and Marotta declined to comment. Boeing said "we are
working with Marotta on a valve redesign."

 (Reporting by Joey Roulette, editing by Ben Klayman and Diane
Craft)
 ((Joey.Roulette@thomsonreuters.com; 7034696632;))