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The delays of Boeing and SpaceX in preparing their space capsules may mean that the International Space Station is circling the Earth for at least nine months without boarding Americans, have warned government auditors this month . The Marshall Space Flight Center's 24-hour operations center in Huntsville, Alabama, coordinates all American, European, Japanese and Canadian experiences on board.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) Releases Its Latest Report on NASA's Commercial Crew Program on July 11. The title was "Plan needed to ensure uninterrupted access to the International Space Station."
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence – and perhaps President Trump himself Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 3 to announce the first crews that will fly on these private vessels.
NASA has not been able to steal astronauts since retiring from the Space Shuttle in 2011; it has paid Russia to transport its astronauts into space while waiting for commercial vessels.
But America only has reserved places on Soyuz rockets until 2019. And buying more seats is not an option, partly because Russia does not can not build another Soyuz on time.
According to the GAO report, Boeing can not get its CST-100 Starliner ready for NASA certification until January 2019. SpaceX can not get its Dragon 2 capsule for certification until February 2019.
Certification is the formal process that NASA will use to ensure that each company's capsule meets safety requirements. But this is not the end of the process. Two test flights – one unmanned, one crewed – will follow the certifications.
NASA gave Boeing nearly $ 4.2 billion and SpaceX nearly $ 2.7 billion to prepare the ships. Both were expected to have the ships ready for certification by 2017. Delays like this are not unusual in space programs, which the auditors note are "very complex, specialized and often pushing". state of the art in space technology. "
The GAO report sets out the problems of each company. Boeing is working to fix a risk in the "abandonment system" that would take astronauts out of the backup rocket if there is a problem, with the parachute system that is part of this abortion system and with data on the rocket Atlas V capsule in the space.
SpaceX dealt with engine turbine cracks and the redesign of a party involved in a mishap in 2016. The biggest challenge for the company may be to get the "# 1. approval to power the launcher with astronauts already on board. According to the inspectors, contractors are "aggressive" to meet the challenges, but "the latest and most recent completion dates for certification … indicate that it is possible that no the two contractors would be ready by August 2020, leaving an At least nine months. "
The GAO report stated that NASA believes to have astronauts on the station permanently" is essential to maintain and operate integrated systems, without which the ISS can not work. "Thus, the space agency is working on the following options:
* Modification of the launch schedule of Soyuz to allow a return in January 2020 instead of the month of November 2019. This would give two more months of access before commercial flights to begin.
* Use of crew test flights of companies as operational flights and dispatch to the station.
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