Nasa is in a Real Pickle with Starliner

What to do?

Man, I’d hate to be a NASA administrator at the moment.

Clearly, something is very wrong with Starliner. When it launched, NASA said the maximum length it could be in space was 45 days. We’re past 50 days now. If you don’t know, several of the thrusters used to maneuver in space malfunctioned when it went to dock with the ISS. Tests on Earth show that it’s an issue related to teflon burning off and clogging up the ports. How this was not discovered on Earth and solved years ago is anyone’s guess but speaks very poorly of Boeing’s quality control.

Boeing is not only very cozy with NASA but also with Congress. So while NASA engineers are probably saying the best bet is to return Starliner without its crew, NASA administrators are probably hearing from both above (Congress) and from Boeing that the astronauts should return on the broken Starliner as planned. No doubt Boeing is exerting strong pressure as a failed mission would probably kill the entire program, cause hundreds of millions of losses, crater their stock, and be yet another huge PR disaster.

Although on a podcast today, a NASA official hinted at an even more interesting tidbit.

He said there was “strong political pressure” to make sure the astronauts get home safe. That is, it’s election season and a spacecraft disaster would be very bad for the administration at the current time potentially affecting the election.

So basically NASA is being pulled in a dozen different directions and has a very difficult choice on its hands. To me, by far the obvious call is to let Starliner undock and return to Earth without its crew. A SpaceX Dragon capsule could then rescue the astronauts. It’s be a disaster for Boeing (more or less depending upon if the capsule makes it home safe) but it would ensure the astronauts’ personal safety which should be the only concern of NASA, although incidents such as Challenger have proven that’s not always the case.

At this point, Boeing has made so many engineering mistakes in recent years I seriously question if their planes are actually safe. Such a shame for what used to be the best name in aviation.