Boeing, NASA say Starliner astronaut launch will move forward despite spacecraft helium leak
Boeing, NASA say Starliner astronaut launch will move forward despite spacecraft helium leak
Boeing and NASA are moving forward with a June 1 launch attempt of the first crewed Starliner mission despite a "stable" leak in its propulsion system.
From the article ...
Stich explained that the plan is to monitor the leak in the lead-up to launch and, after reaching the International Space Station, reassess the leak rate.
I got major 'O-ring' vibes after reading that.
I can't believe they're going to fly with that leak.
Its not great, but not nearly as bad as Challenger SRB O-rings.
In SRB O-rings, fire gets OUT of where you want the fire to stay. In this situation the worst case scenario is that the helium would not be available to push fuel out of the fuel storage tank to the place where fire is suppose to occur. So again, in worst case, it won't be a giant fireball, but no thrust of the spacecraft in space when you want it. You'd like get lots of notice if this is going to be a problem in the future and be able to take different actions.
That said, none of this kind of problem should occur so far into development and after 2 previous flights.
Its not great, but not nearly as bad as Challenger SRB O-rings.
I was speaking more from the managerial and not the engineering point of view, when I made that comment about the vibes. How management politics underplayed problems until a disaster happened
My point still stands though. If the leak grows large during the trip, and all the helium escapes, then they can't maneuver the craft, which means they can't get at the right angle to reenter the atmosphere without burning up.
And if the shuttle tiles situation tells us anything, they don't take everything with them up into space, to do on-site emergency repairs.
Even if they brought extra helium with them, if the leak is widened (launch vibrations, etc.) to a point where the helium escapes too quickly now, before the whole reentry sequence completes, then they're stuck.
Just feels like driving a car across the Mojave Desert, with a known tire leak, and hoping the leak doesn't get any worse. Feels like a 'roll of the dice' moment.
Imagine being chosen not for Dragon, but for this... I would be shitting myself now.
One of the Astronauts chosen for Starliner already retired years ago because the Starliner development took so long, so its down to a crew of two.
They calculated that the thrusters would still work normally with up to 4 leaks of that size, or one leak up to 100x that size. And the affected thrusters are the backup for the backup for what they're actually using to maneuver.
Remember when we allowed the Columbia to reenter despite concerns of heat shield damage?
There really wasn’t another option for Columbia. It was die in space or die trying to land.
“We know we can manage this [leak], so this is really not a safety of flight issue,” Nappi added.
Oh, oh Boeing.
Assuming for a minute that this is 100% true, for conversation's sake.
Does that matter? We have here a company with a reputation that is massively hurt by issues in their aircraft and inability to keep a decent quality control, and they think the best way forward is to announce the whole world they're flying a space mission with a leaky spacecraft? Are they actively trying to tank their reputation even further?
Normalization of deviance
Jesus Crap. Them Boeing drugs must be goooooood.
They should have gotten Airbus to do it.
I think Airbus is too busy swimming in money.
I heard from my neighbors - who work there - that the biggest struggle internally now is to keep their quality standards up despite everyone and their mother ordering dozens of planes as they're cancelling as many Boeing orders as they can. So it takes constant and organized pushbacks against management to not commit the same normalization of deviance that is bringing Boeing down. You'd think it'd be easy! Because that's exacty why their main competitor is flailing. Nope, management wants their bonuses. 😑
At least from what they can tell me, it's actually working though and upper management had to shut it and accept the current speed of work and enjoy the decades of backlog and paid-already contracts instead. Only 4 yachts per person or something...
That's heartening! Thank you for that!
This is going to be another challenger isn't it
Even if it doesn't go that way, it's just sloppy and shows an element of disregard.
No wonder less people are interested in becoming astronauts. This "it's broken and we're not going to bother fixing it" is just creeping in too much.
Welp, at least Helium is an inert noble gas. Hopefully no unintended consequences occur though