Boeing’s Starliner lands safely despite snag

Boeing’s test space shuttle, Starliner, returned on Friday without astronauts Buch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, and landed safely despite the fact that five of the 28 thrusters failed and helium which kept the pressure in the thrusters began to leak. The failed thrusters is the reason that NASA had decided to keep Wilmore and Williams in the International Space Station (ISS) till February, 2025 when they will return in Space X’s Dragon capsule. The question remains whether the safe landing of the Starliner restores confidence in Boeing’s shuttle for future manned flights, or will the problems of the failed thrusters remain to haunt the company’s future space mission.

The re-entry of the Starliner into the earth’s orbit, which was considered the risky phase of the vehicle’s return and which was considered a serious risk to the lives of the astronauts, went off pretty well. However, the failed thrusters got burnt during the descent. It deprives Boeing to scrutinize as to what actually was wrong with the thrusters. Now, the scrutiny has to be done through simulation only, imitating the faulty parts. The thrusters have turned out to be a problem for the earlier Starliner test flights too, especially the unmanned one in 2019. It was the 2022 test flight that turned out well.

The caution of NASA is justified because the least doubt about the safety of astronauts could not be allowed. Boeing cannot hope to get the NASA certification for Starliner space missions thought the craft had landed safely. It will have to address the problem of the thrusters, which seems to be dogging the project right from the beginning. And it looks like it will take some time for the Boeing engineering team to sort the problem. It will have to do a thorough check of the components as well as its functioning process. This would involve going back to the drawing board. Boeing seems to be going through a tough phase because even its passenger jetliner has developed serious problems, raising questions about safety. And the company has been caught on the wrong foot in accounting and it has made a deal with the authorities on a guilty plea.

Boeing’s troubles, especially with the Starliner, is sure to give a lot of satisfaction to its rival, Space X, owned by Elon Musk. The competition between the two seems to have been acrimonious, and the mechanical faults in the Starliner leaved Space X’s Dragon craft the free run to take the astronauts to the ISS and bring them back. In February, Dragon will bring back the stranded astronauts Wilmore and Williams. Dragon has left two seats vacant for the two astronauts. Musk, who is not known for modesty, is sure to brag as to how he has outclassed the established industry player like the Boeing on the space front. And it would seem that Musk has rightfully won the bragging rights.

NASA would not much relish the victory of Musk over rivals Boeing because that would leave NASA fully dependent on Musk’s Space X. It would have preferred to operate the shuttle flights with two operators, Space X and Boeing, rather than just Space X. But with Boeing sliding back with its engineering flaws, NASA does not have much of a choice. Musk will be a tough vendor, and he is going to make his demands. There is also the fact that he is planning his own space mission with astronauts who are not from the NASA and the US armed forces. And he is looking beyond the moon to Mars. Perhaps it is inevitable, that in true capitalist fashion, space travel will go into the hands of private operators in the long term.