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It goes without saying that building a spaceship is not easy. Building a device that can carry a crew safely is even more difficult, which is one of the reasons why Boeing has had to repeatedly postpone the debut of its new Starliner spacecraft. Now, a new report details yet another setback for Boeing, this time linked to the launch abandonment system that is supposed to keep astronauts safe in the event of a total disaster.
As Ars Technica Explains, a recent The launch of the interrupted launch engines in New Mexico ended with a thud when engineers discovered that engines were leaking propellants after the hot fire test
something is wrong during the early stages of a crew flight. This would prevent losses in case the rocket that the crew is piloting suffers a catastrophic failure, so it is obviously very important to do it right. Unfortunately for Boeing, things did not go according to plan.
"We are conducting a thorough investigation with the help of our NASA and our industry partners," Boeing said in a statement. "We are confident that we have found the cause and are moving forward with corrective measures.Safety of flights and risk mitigation are why we conduct such rigorous testing, and anomalies are integral to any testing program. "
Boeing reportedly told NASA that he would not need to rebuild the Starliner spacecraft which is good news, but they will have to of course, to devote more resources to the problem so that things work as intended. This could mean even more delays for a spaceship that has seen more than its fair share.
Boeing and SpaceX are currently working on flight systems to bring NASA astronauts into space. Companies are essentially racing to be the first company to come up with a commercial solution for NASA that does not require sending astronauts to Eastern Europe to take a flight on a Russian rocket. Neither company was able to meet its original schedule, and Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Dragon did not achieve their goals.
The situation is so serious at this stage that NASA does not know if it will be able to keep a steady stream of NASA crew aboard the International Space Station. The group had predicted that commercial flights from Boeing or SpaceX (or perhaps both) would be operational by the time NASA's contract with the Russian space agency Roscosmos exhausted, but delays like this means that it probably will not happen. [19659008]
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