A "Three Hour Tour" Stretches Into Months for Gilligan & Co - Or, Wilmore & Williams

After about two months of delays, space enthusiasts have begun wondering just how functional the Boeing Starliner is, after apparently stranding Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS.

Initially, the problematic Starliner was slated for a quick 'out-n-back' mission that would serve as its official entry into crewed launches, taking Wilmore and Williams to the ISS and back. On its outbound leg, Starliner suffered a number of thruster malfunctions, which Boeing had downplayed as an issue ahead of the return flight. At first, the company said it had merely postponed the launch in order to study elements of the system that would later be lost during the reentry process, but now, they aren't so sure, having been unable to replicate and identify the root cause of the thruster failure.

As space aficionados ticked the days off their calendars, the story seemed less and less a case of simple mechanical or software error and more one of corporate obfuscation. Grumbling abounds on forums and social media, as the original "three hour tour" planned for Starliner stretches indefinitely into the future. Boeing hasn't had a great track record of quality-first, detail-oriented, attentive manufacturing in its civil aviation side as of late, and its continued foibles against the newcomer SpaceX has really depleted its brand cachet. That leaves the peanut gallery to believe it's not all that unlikely that the firm is trying to keep quiet about the depth of Starliner's issues, particularly if any problems could be easily solved with a quick and dirty software update.

Some well-placed journalists have said that NASA, famously conservative about safety when it comes to crewed flights, have put off the detachment of Starliner from the ISS. Reportedly, the thruster issues could, in the right sequence of failure, result in a collision with the ISS soon after undocking, or leave the capsule to uncontrollably flail during its atmospheric reentry. An entire headache of software has come to light, thanks to Eric Berger's digging, which revealed, in typical Boeing fashion, an uncharacteristic level of engineering apathy:

"Three separate, well-placed sources have confirmed to Ars Technica that the current flight software on board Starliner cannot perform an automated undocking from the space station and entry into Earth’s atmosphere," said Berger. "At first blush, this seems absurd. After all, Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test 2 mission in May 2022 was a fully automated test of the Starliner vehicle. During this mission, the spacecraft flew up to the space station without crew on board and then returned to Earth six days later. Although the 2022 flight test was completed by a different Starliner vehicle, it clearly demonstrated the ability of the program's flight software to autonomously dock and return to Earth. Boeing did not respond to a media query about why this capability was removed for the crew flight test."

By now, it's looking more and more likely that Wilmore and Williams will have to come back home aboard ol' reliable, the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

FMI: www.nasa.gov