NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) released its 2024 annual assessment of NASA mission safety on Feb. 5 which found many areas of improvement, but also some new failures that could jeopardize Boeing’s Starliner program. The report details problems with the hardware, but also revealed problems in communications, issues of chain of command, and the need for clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all parties in the “public-private partnership” between NASA and its contractors. The report further warned NASA’s leadership that a contractor’s “interests may not fully align with NASA’s.”
When it finally launched on June 5, 2024, Starliner’s first crewed mission was seven years behind schedule due to multiple problems. It safely delivered two NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, to the International Space Station. However, during the docking phase, new problems were encountered with the thrusters and more helium leaks. The eight-day mission has turned into an eight-month odyssey for the two astronauts, who are still stranded on the Space Station and are hoping for a late-March return to Earth. Over the objections from Boeing, due to safety concerns, NASA returned the Starliner capsule to Earth without its crew on Sept. 7. During the return flight, there occurred an additional thruster failure, this time on the capsule module. Previous thruster failures were on the service module.
For full certification of the Starliner program, the ASAP review is demanding resolution to several problems. In addition to resolving any problems of ambiguity between the parties of the public-private partnership, the report also points to difficulties in a needed battery redesign which is used for landing parachutes, the helium leaks, and the thrusters. A program that is seven years behind schedule, which still has so many problems, may find it difficult to justify its budget. Boeing was granted $4.2 billion for the project with the promise that it would deliver crews to the Space Station starting in 2017. Boeing has lost at least $1.6 billion on the program.