Page 81 - World Airnews Magazine December 2019 Edition

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STARLINER PASSENGER a month away from Starliner’s first flight to space. to the fact that SpaceX had a significant lead in development time.
Boeing noted that the Crew Dragon is an upgraded version of
After the Atlas V puts Starliner in orbit, the capsule is tasked
with meeting up with the space station and automatically docking SpaceX’s cargo Dragon, which has already been flying to the station
SPACECRAFT TO LAUNCH SITE with one of the available ports on the ISS. Following a brief stay, for years and received additional NASA investment long ago.
Starliner will then depart and come back to Earth, where it will
Despite all this, Boeing is still forging ahead and the Starliner
attempt to land at one of five locations in the western US. could finally see space before the end of the year. As for when
A combination of parachutes and airbags are designed to land people will fly on either Boeing’s or SpaceX’s vehicles, that’s still an
the Starliner gently on solid ground. open question.
While no people will be on board the capsule in December, The recent OIG report noted there are still many hurdles for
Boeing plans to fly a dummy - just like SpaceX did - wearing one both companies to overcome and that it is very likely that neither
Boeing has rolled out its new passen- of the blue pressure suits the company developed for future SpaceX nor Boeing will be certified to regularly transport crews to
ger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, from astronauts. While SpaceX’s dummy was named Ripley after the the ISS before summer of 2020. Q
lead in the Alien franchise, Boeing has named its mannequin Rosie,
the Florida launch site. The vehicle is set after Rosie the Riveter.
to take off from next month. “Rosie is a symbol of not only the women who are blazing a
It will be the first time that a space- trail in human spaceflight history, but also of everyone who has
flight-ready version of the capsule has shown grit and determination while working tirelessly to ensure
exited the hangar. the Starliner can transport astronauts safely to and from the
Now the capsule will be mated on top International Space Station,” Leanne Caret, president of Boeing’s
of the rocket that will take it to space - an defence, space and security division.
Atlas V manufactured by the United Boeing’s milestone comes just a week after a damning report
Launch Alliance. was released by NASA’s Office of Inspector General, claiming that
On December 17th, the rocket and rides on Boeing’s Starliner will be incredibly expensive.
capsule are slated to take off from Cape The report argued that one seat on Starliner will cost (US) $90
Canaveral, Florida - without any crew million - more than a seat on the Soyuz and much more than the
members on board - and then dock with (US) $55 million a seat on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will cost.
the International Space Station. The audit also revealed that Boeing had received an extra (US)
If successful, this demonstration mission $287 million to the company’s supposedly fixed-price contract
could pave the way for NASA astronauts to to prevent delays to the commercial crew programme, (US) $187
fly on the Starliner sometime next year. million of which the inspector general considered unnecessary.
Boeing has been developing the Starliner The report even hinted that Boeing was threatening to leave
spacecraft for NASA as part of the space the Commercial Crew programme if it didn’t receive more money.
agency’s commercial crew programme, Additionally, the report found that SpaceX was not given the
an initiative to fly astronauts on US-made opportunity to receive additional funding to its contract.
vehicles once again. Since the end of
the Space Shuttle programme in 2011, Both NASA and Boeing vehemently disagreed with many of the
NASA astronauts have had to ride on conclusions drawn by the OIG report. Boeing said it rejects the
Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to get to the estimated pricing of its Starliner seats and that the company never
International Space Station, a partnership threatened to quit the programme. The company also said that the
that costs NASA (US) $85 million per seat. cost discrepancies between Boeing and SpaceX can be attributed
Boeing is one of two providers for the
commercial crew programme, along with
rival SpaceX, which has been developing
its own passenger spacecraft called
the Crew Dragon. The two have been
in an unspoken competition with one
another to fly humans first, though Boeing
has seemed to lag behind SpaceX in
development.
SpaceX already launched its Crew
Dragon once in March, on an un-crewed
flight test to the International Space
Station. The flight demonstrated the Crew
Dragon’s capability to dock with the ISS
and then return home safely.
After that flight, however, the same
Crew Dragon that flew to the ISS suffered
a major failure when it exploded during
engine testing on the ground. The setback
caused a significant delay to SpaceX’s
development schedule, and now it’s
unclear which company will be the first to
fly people.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine
recently claimed that if testing goes well,
SpaceX could fly people as early as the first
quarter of 2020. However, no target dates
have been set yet.
In the meantime, Boeing is now less than

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