If everything goes according to plan, this coming morning, at 04:34 (Spanish peninsular time), Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner ship will rise from complex number 41 at Cape Canaveral, transporting two crew members to the Space Station for the first time. International. Boeing reaches this point after a long history of delays and problems in the design and testing of the Starliner. And at a delicate moment for the company, after the serious accidents suffered by some of its planes in recent years.
In 2011, and after the last flight of a space shuttle, NASA launched the so-called Commercial Crew Program, a project with which private initiative was entrusted with the recovery of the North American capacity to send astronauts to space and stop depending on the Russian Soyuz. The program materialized in 2014 with the granting of contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to design the country’s new spacecraft.
Boeing frente a SpaceX
Since then, the trajectory that the two corporations have followed has been very different. Although Boeing’s design initially seemed more promising, SpaceX took the lead in 2019, when the Demo-1 mission of its Dragon 2 spacecraft, still without humans on board, managed to reach the International Space Station. A year later, on May 31, 2020, Elon Musk’s company achieved historic success with the flight of two astronauts on Demo-2. Currently, SpaceX has already completed eight manned missions for NASA and another four for private clients.
For its part, Boeing expected its Starliner to be operational in 2015, but problems with the design caused a long chain of delays. When it seemed that the difficulties had been overcome, in December 2019 the Boeing ship suffered a failure on its maiden unmanned flight, which prevented it from reaching the space station. Then, another technical mishap, in August 2021, caused the cancellation of a new launch attempt. Finally, a Starliner managed to dock with the space station in May 2022, but Boeing later postponed, without date, the first crewed mission, initially scheduled for July 2023, due to problems with the parachutes that must slow the ship when returning to the earth.
The inaugural mission
On this morning’s flight, the Starliner will be propelled by an Atlas V rocket from the ULA (United Launch Alliance) company, and will transport two astronauts (there will be four on subsequent missions). These are Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both on NASA staff. They are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Wednesday the 8th at 06:48 (peninsular time), and to remain there for a week.
If everything goes well, this mission should serve for NASA to approve the Starliner and the ship to finally enter operational mode. This would allow Boeing to opt for the six manned flights that the current contract with the space agency ensures until 2030, the year in which the International Space Station is scheduled to end its service. In the case of SpaceX, 14 more missions are expected under the auspices of NASA.
A company with problems
In recent years, Boeing has suffered serious mishaps with some of its planes. In 2018 and 2019, two 737 Max crashed, causing 346 deaths and temporarily halting manufacturing of the aircraft. A new incident, in January of this year, caused the loss of a door in mid-flight and once again called into question the corporation’s quality control measures.
Currently, Boeing is immersed in several investigations by regulatory authorities, especially after one of its engineers denounced the cuts in materials applied in the manufacture of the 777 and 787 Dreamliner models. This being the case, the space flight this morning could mean a boost of oxygen for Boeing’s public image or, on the contrary, further deepen the crisis that the company is experiencing.
