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The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a disturbing report this week regarding the crew program of NASA C . It seems that NASA risks losing access to the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months or more.
The problem comes from the fact that the Russian spacecraft Soyuz is the only ship approved for the dispatch of astronauts. the space station. However, NASA's contract granting access to Russian crafts is due to expire in November 2019.
NASA worked with Boeing and SpaceX on the production of crewed vessels in its program. commercial crew. Plans are underway with the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which will launch the first test next month at the Kennedy Space Station
Significant delays have been recorded
However, both projects have already experienced significant delays. The contracts, estimated to total an exorbitant $ 6.8 billion together, were expected to deliver their ships by 2017.
In good news, the SpaceX Dragon capsule and Boeing's Starliner should both be ready for sale. 2019. However, GOA has now identified "Before any mission, NASA will have to certify that the vehicles of the two contractors are safe for manned spaceflights. NASA will badess safety as the loss of metric The report states that" NASA does not Is not a consistent approach to calculate this measure "and continues to give five" valid "recommendations for NASA to complete. This includes the development of an "emergency plan to ensure a presence on the ISS until a commercial crew program contractor is certified ", documentation of lessons learned regarding crew loss and the inclusion of risk badysis results in mandatory quarterly reports to Congress.
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The GAO states that the "latest and most recent completion dates for certification" indicate a "potential access gap of at least 9". months' or more, but does not contribute to NASA. requests in time. In addition, NASA can not hope to get more seats in Soyuz while awaiting the approval of its vessels
"Obtaining additional Soyuz seats seems unlikely, as the manufacturing process of these satellites generally takes three years, additional seats would not be available until 2021. "The report mentions some ISS access options considered by NASA's Associate Director for Exploration. and operations, but provides no support for either.
On the contrary, GAO simply warns that "if NASA does not develop options for the ISS in the event of further delays of the commercial crew, it will not be able to guarantee that the objective and purpose of US policy will be achieved. "
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