The Journal. - Boeing's 9-Month Flight Delay – in Space

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

In June, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station. But issues with its propulsion system have called into question its safety. Now, NASA is weighing alternatives to bring the astronauts home. WSJ’s Micah Maidenberg shares how the Starliner program has faced a bevy of problems and what it means for Boeing. Further Reading: - Boeing Sent Two Astronauts Into Space. Now It Needs to Get Them Home.  - NASA Says Starliner Astronauts Could Return With SpaceX—Next Year  - Two Astronauts Are Stuck in Space. Here’s How They’re Passing the Time.  Further Listening: - Elon Musk’s Unusual Relationships With Women at SpaceX  - The New Race to the Moon  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25, status check. Go Atlas. Go Centaur. Go Starliner. Godspeed, Butch and Sunny. Back in June, two astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, set course for the International Space Station. Two, one, ignition. And liftoff of Starliner at Atlas V, carrying two American heroes drawing a line to the stars. The astronauts took to space aboard Starliner, Boeing's flagship spacecraft. It was the first time Starliner had ever flown with humans on board. The mission was part of a major test

to see if the craft could successfully carry a crew to the ISS. It was a big moment for Boeing. The two astronauts traveled to the space station, which orbits 250 miles above Earth, docked successfully, and boarded. — Sunny Williams coming through in her blue flight suit. — And followed shortly behind by Commander of Starliner Butch Wilmore, now back on the space station, the third visit for both astronauts

and the first crewed flight test of the Starliner spacecraft. But the mission hasn't gone as smoothly as planned. Issues with Starliner's propulsion system have delayed the astronauts' journey home. And a trip that was scheduled to last eight days could potentially stretch to nine months, leaving NASA and Boeing racing to figure out next steps. Internally at NASA, officials are really grappling with risk and with uncertainty about a really like high-stakes question like is Boeing Starliner spacecraft safe enough to transport two NASA astronauts back to Earth?

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, August 12th. Coming up on the show, Boeing's Starliner and the astronauts left in limbo. Join the movement to end hunger at feedingamerica.org slash act now. Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council. Starliner's journey to the International Space Station is more than a decade in the making. And it started with the end of an era. Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history

secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end. In 2011, NASA retired the space shuttle program. Space shuttle was expensive, complicated. There had been two enormous tragedies involving the vehicle. That's our colleague Micah Maidenberg. And there was, you know, a rising cohort of executives and space companies that were developing vehicles for orbit. What NASA did is basically go to the space industry and aerospace contractors and say,

we want you to develop spacecraft that can transport cargo and eventually crew to the International Space Station. And we simply want to hitch a ride on the vehicles you develop and buy a ticket, you know, kind of like you'd buy a flight from, you know, DC to Florida or wherever. NASA chose two companies to develop new vehicles that could carry astronauts to space. SpaceX and Boeing. For the two companies, it meant the start of a race to the ISS. A race that Boeing was confident it could win. Boeing here is the incumbent.

Boeing has worked with NASA for decades at this point. There are deep ties between the agency and the company. Boeing can point to all kinds of work dating back to the Apollo program. This opportunity would let the company enter a new era of space missions with NASA. Boeing started putting resources toward a new spacecraft, Starliner. Starliner is the sort of gumdrop-shaped space capsule that has room for several astronauts. And it basically, you blast it off into low Earth orbit on a rocket, and it separates and it has its own propulsion system with a series of larger and smaller thrusters that help either position it in space or thrust it forward. And it flies in to dock with one of the ports at the station.

Right. I'm looking at a photo of Starliner. It's giving me like R2-D2 vibes with the color scheme. Yeah, I could see that. I mean, it's not quite a dome the way R2-D2 is, but it has sort of that shape. What's at stake for Boeing as it tries to get Starliner running? I mean, in some ways, like civil space, you know, basically working with NASA is like a, is a very small part financially of Boeing's sort of vast aerospace and aviation enterprise.

But transporting astronauts for NASA is a very high prestige, high stakes, high visibility mission. And so as much as any of the money involved, this is also about Boeing's reputation, about their ability to execute and to pull off big, tough projects. It is tough to transport people safely in and out of space. So what expectations did Boeing have for Starliner? Well, Boeing had big expectations for Starliner. If you look back at executive commentary from years ago, you know, you see some leaders, now former leaders at the company talking about how they thought they wanted Boeing to be first, first in delivering, you know, those crew members to the station.

But even with all of its history and confidence, Boeing did face a tough competitor, SpaceX. The company had already developed a capsule called Dragon, designed to carry cargo to space. And in 2012, Dragon became the first private spacecraft to ever dock on the ISS. SpaceX planned to modify that cargo capsule to be able to carry humans. They called the new craft Crew Dragon.

Meanwhile, Boeing's own development process of Starliner was hitting major snags. So 2019, this is the end of the year, this is December. Boeing is set to conduct the initial test flight of Starliner with no one on board. This isn't gonna be an autonomous flight. You launch the vehicle, dock with the station,

bring it back home, test out the parachutes, the thrusters, everything else. The vehicle is launched, a beautiful launch, like pre-dawn from a military station down in Florida and things seem to be going really well until they're not. Boeing says the spacecraft failed to fire up its engines at the correct moment because of an issue with its onboard clock and then it went off course. That meant no docking with the space station and no delivery of food, clothing, and holiday presents for the station crew. A major setback for a new American spacecraft meant to ferry humans into orbit. So it didn't go well. It did not go well.

It meant delays. It meant months and months of analysis, third-party reviews, taking a step back, working with NASA, trying to figure out what went wrong, trying to figure out what the solutions are, and when it made sense to try again. But before Boeing could try again… Ignition. Lift off.

There's a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon. Go, NASA. Go NASA! Go SpaceX! Godspeed! SpaceX launched its own test mission in 2020, with astronauts. The launch was hailed as a huge success. Boeing had lost the race. But it still needed to fulfill its contract with NASA, so the company worked to catch up.

In the summer of 2021, Boeing is poised to launch Starliner on this uncrewed flight test, and then it all is called off. This time, the company discovers that a number of valves in the vehicle's propulsion system have corroded and are stuck. Not the valves. I mean, this is very high risk. So valves are a very tricky thing in the space industry and the test launch planned for 2021 is delayed. It took several more months before Starliner was able to launch an uncrewed test flight.

And liftoff. Starliner is headed back to space. This just in. We heard that MECO happened, which is main engine cutoff, which means that the Starliner is officially in space, in orbit. And it's been a good day on the space coast. Just hours ago, Boeing Starliner spacecraft took flight. Boeing has Starliner launched. It flies to the station, it docks with the station, it comes back to Earth under parachutes and lands. There were issues along the way, but you would expect those. It's still a test flight, and the company's feeling pretty good

about the progress it's made on Starliner. After years of delays, Boeing was ready to send astronauts into space. What those astronauts said about flying Starliner is after the break. assistance to help provide meals for us. These meals help fuel my love for acting. When people are fed, futures are nourished. Join the movement to end hunger at feedingamerica.org slash act now. Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council. So it's 2024 and Boeing is ready to launch a test mission

with two astronauts aboard. What can you tell me about them? So Barry Wilmore, Sunita Williams, Butch and Sunny, as they're often called. I love this like duo situation that they... You know, Butch and Sunny are really impressive people. They're really charismatic. They're really smart. And they're really serious about aviation, space, and aerospace. Both of them are former Navy test pilots and have flown test and experimental aircraft for the military.

Both of them have, you know, been to space before. And they've dedicated their lives essentially to pushing the edge of flight, whether that's closer to Earth or a bit further away. And you've met them. I did. I met I met Butch and Sunny back in March at NASA's Johnson Space Center down in Houston. The main question that I asked both of them in different ways is like, how do you think about Starliner and getting onto this spacecraft, which has been delayed,

has had technical issues, and has struggled to get to where it's supposed to be. I feel like you astronauts are sort of famous for being able to control your emotions on high stakes, munches, but you wanna have this analytic kind of framework, but it's gotta come in anxiety or emotion or something at some point, right? I mean, I think it's compartmentalization, right? This is my task at hand, I'm going to do this.

And then, you know, it was sort of similar at the end of every EVA, you know, you're doing a spacewalk, you're out there, you're doing your thing, da da da da, you come back in and it's like, whoa, you know, whoa, that was sort of like an emotional event and I think it's going to be the same way once we get through that launch we get, I feel like we'll be super focused on our operational crew capabilities that we'll do up until we go to sleep the first day. And then I think all of a sudden both of us are going to be like, whoa, hey, we're here, we're floating around, This is pretty cool. Do you feel like you have at this point,

you know, visibility, like is this vehicle essentially ready to go? It's been rung out and you have visibility into everything. What this is gonna, how this is gonna go. Absolutely. Yeah, we wouldn't go up. Like I said, we're not gonna launch until we're ready.

That's been the mantra from the beginning. It's always that way. Sometimes you don't know you're not ready. Those unknown unknowns, right? And we found some of those unknown unknowns because that's what you do. That's what the process, what it's all about. And I guarantee you, there's still some unknown unknowns

in this spacecraft. It's not necessarily ones that are catastrophic, but things that you don't realize, that you don't know, software, whatever it is, that has to be rectified. And that's the nature of the business we're in. In June, a few months after that interview, Butch and Sonny boarded Starliner for its test launch to the International Space Station. Here's Butch describing the launch from orbit. And it is just an amazing, amazing spacecraft put together. Boeing's done a magnificent job.

And thus far, like I said, things have just gone, I don't know, I'll use a swimming leg. It's gone fabulously, put it like that. And so kudos to everybody. But after Starliner flew to the ISS, it became clear that something was awry. During the flight, there were a number of hiccups and a number of issues that we're still talking about with NASA and the company today.

During docking, several thrusters, maneuvering thrusters on Starliner's propulsion system temporarily failed, and NASA discovered more helium leaks like in the propulsion system. The problems with the propulsion system didn't ultimately prevent Starliner from docking with the ISS, but it did raise alarm bells. Butch and Sunny make it onto the station. It's a joyous moment for them. Starliner is docked. And immediately the discussion at NASA and with Boeing turns to what did we learn about these problems that came up. NASA and Boeing have been testing, trying to characterize what happened, trying to replicate

why these five thrusters temporarily failed. The question now is whether or not Starliner is fit to take Butch and Sunny home. NASA and Boeing disagree on the answer. Boeing at this point has said, look, we've done this testing and we believe there is quote unquote flight rationale for taking Butch and Sunny back onto Starliner and bringing them back to earth. Boeing is essentially saying, we understand the issues that came up enough

to transport two astronauts back to earth on Starliner. NASA is not in agreement with that. And NASA is in this intense moment internally where they're having vigorous debates about risk, safety, and Starliner. And Butch and Sunny, of course. Okay, so there's a disagreement between Boeing and NASA. What does this mean for the astronauts, for Butch and Sunny? Originally, this trip was only supposed to take a few days. This mission was about testing Starliner, the vehicle.

Butch and Sunny were supposed to be delivered to the space station on Starliner, stay a few days, come back to Earth, test that vehicle out, eight days total. That's what the expectation was, you know, earlier this year. So now they wait. They wait for resolution. They wait for a plan to come back to Earth. As of today, Butch and Sunny have been on the ISS for 67 days. If NASA can't get comfortable with Starliner's problems, the vehicle could return to Earth without the two astronauts. And if that happens, they may have to hitch a ride with Boeing's rival, SpaceX. The company has been ferrying cargo and crew to the ISS for years. If NASA opts for SpaceX instead of Boeing, Wich and Sunny would depart on a SpaceX vehicle in February of 2025. That's six months from now.

Talk about a flight delay. And in the meantime, you know, these two astronauts, what are they gonna be doing? What have they been doing? So, Butch and Sunny are conducting research. They're doing experiments. That's what the space station is. It's an orbiting microgravity research lab.

Mitch and Sunny are exercising, astronauts on board. They're doing station keeping, equipment servicing, food inventory, working on plumbing, checking out the views. They can communicate with their families. They're getting into the flow of life on board the station. And if the SpaceX option is chosen, they're going to have many months of that ahead of them. Butch and Sunny have said they're enjoying themselves on the space station. They see the delay as a chance to conduct science and help with some maintenance. But for the Starliner program, it's yet another setback.

Even though Boeing is confident in the spacecraft's safety, the program overall has been much tougher than the company anticipated. Starliner has not gone well for Boeing. It has not met the expectations. That vehicle is still not proven out the way that a lot of folks at Boeing hoped it would be a long time ago. What does this mean for Boeing's future with NASA or Boeing's future in general? Well, Boeing is in a real moment of transition.

You know, they have a new CEO. They have real problems and challenges in other real moment of transition. They have a new CEO. They have real problems and challenges in other parts of the company. I mean, I think Boeing's goal before this flight was to get it done, get Starliner certified for regular operations by NASA, fly the six crew rotations that they're under contract to fly.

And then beyond that, it's hard to say, at least for the Starliner program. That's all for today, Monday, August 12th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.