Starliner delayed again! NASA gives up...

Starliner delayed again! NASA gives up...
Starliner delay again!

A mere fortnight ago, I informed you about the positive development that the Boeing Starliner is all set to take off with astronauts on board for the first time next month.
Alas, despite the hopeful news, the spacecraft appears to be plagued by a persistent curse, as it has yet again been delayed.
Yes, one again!
In any case, let’s take a look at what is ailing the progress of the Boeing Starliner in today’s episode of Alpha Tech!
I can imagine that it’s quite painful to remember that NASA dumped $4.2 billion of taxpayer money on Boeing to build the spacecraft.
In addition, the agency even paid a $185 million charge to pay for the second setback on the Starliner crew capsule, bringing the company’s out-of-pocket costs on the troubled program to $595 million since 2019.
Everything seemed to be getting better when Boeing recently kept saying they were making good progress to launch in April.
However, at the last minute, NASA just delayed Boeing Starliner's debut crewed voyage. 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.
“As always, we will fly when we are ready,” Leuders tweeted.
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."
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 added.
Starliner delayed again! NASA gives up...

[richardmattocks]

Just shows how good those Apollo engineers were. From (almost) a standing start they did it all in around 9 years and all with 60’s tech.

[olivergrumitt]

We all know why Chris Ferguson, the original commander of the first Starliner mission, left the Starliner programme. He had no wish to leave his wife a widow, and, if he has children, his children without a father. Events I fear may mean he was very wise to do so.

[johnnyhollis]

The Starliner has been a money pit from the start. I wonder what the preference would be if Astronauts could pick their taxi to the ISS, Starliner or Dragon?!

[myfavoritemartian]

Congress will NOT allow NASA to ditch Boeing. Too many favors are owed.

[Retrracin]

I retired from Boeings 4 years ago after working there for 35 years. The company was a disaster when I left I can only imagine how bad it is now.

[greglight]

Remember when the saying was “if it’s not Boeing I’m not going “? That’s when they were an engineering driven company, then they moved from Seattle to Chicago.

[TheRobocrash]

Did NASA give up? I must have missed it

[bazoo]

1:50 - Given the quality of Boeing software, it is good that one of my favorite astronauts, Sunita Williams, will have the capability to bring this can home manually (unless they included some MCAS-like "innovation). That is, unless she retires before this contraption flies again.

[mikercflyer]

I was working for Rocketdyne in the 60’s at the Van Nuys facility producing attitude control thrusters. No CNC machines in those days.

[todortodorov]

"The spacecraft appears to be plagued by a *persistent curse* ".

Let me correct you: "The spacecraft appears to be plagued by a *persistent incompetence [at Boeing]* ".

[usedcarsokinawa]

The efficiency of government contractors. lol

[spleefthedude]

Boeing needs to get their crap together. This is a real disgrace and embarrassment for such a company. The corruption and incompetence involved must be staggering…

[richardmattocks]

The issues with StarLiner are 2nd only to SLS for being an embarrassment.

I get that “space is hard” but ffs.

[gary]

Cost overruns? In a govt funded operation? No? Really? If I were an astronaut I would NOT fly in this POS.

[riverakers]

If we had invested all that money into SpaceX and not Boeing we would be much better off.

[bobgreschke]

Didn't a company called Boeing have trouble with something like lithium batteries in some sort of flying machine called 787 to 7E7 or something like that? The guy that fixed that must have retired.

[JGerbase]

What a waste of money. Fire Boeing and hire SpaceX. We the taxpayers are getting screwed by NASA and Boeing.

[bazoo]

3:05 - Boeing also has plenty of experience with Li-ion batteries - e.g with them catching fine in B-787 "Dreamliner", causing the first of many groundings and delivery delays for the airliner.

[brianfahey]

Boeing is barely a shadow of the engineering powerhouse they once were. Today, Boeing is no longer in the aerospace business, rather they are in the government check cashing business.

[jamesocker]

After challenger disaster NASA better be careful, it was their hurry up to launch that killed the astronauts