The United States has increased the launch speed of spacecraft this year, and launched Boeing's starliner spaceliner in May this year, but the good times did not last long, according to British media reports, due to the continuous failure of the starship, the astronauts had to postpone the return time, busy with various emergency repair work, which led to the exhaustion of fuel for the space station. According to the assessment, under the premise that the hidden dangers of the spacecraft cannot be solved, whether the astronauts can return safely must be marked with a question mark. If it wants to return safely, the United States can only bow its noble head and ask China for help.
Like Boeing airliners, Boeing spacecraft failures continued. Especially since 2018, with the aviation accidents of many Boeing's passenger aircraft, Boeing has been immediately pushed to the forefront, and the aerospace industry has also been affected. However, the U.S. government has great trust in Boeing and continues to hand over a large number of space orders to Boeing. In low-Earth orbit manning and cargo services, Boeing and Musk's SpaceX participated in the market competition and eventually won a $2.6 billion contract. After taking over the U.S. National Space Program, Boeing quickly developed the CST-100 spacecraft, which can fly independently for 60 hours, dock for 21 days and be reused ten times. However, the launch mission of this spacecraft did not go well, the first launch in 2019 failed due to a counter problem, and for many years after that, the Boeing Starliner failed repeatedly and finally achieved success in 2022. But at this time, the former rival SpaceX had already achieved unprecedented success on the Dragon spacecraft project, leaving Boeing behind.
Although the fate of the Boeing spacecraft has been bumpy and problems have continued, even if there have been various accidents and failures, the United States' trust in Boeing has not decreased. In the end, the spacecraft successfully landed on June 5 with two astronauts on board, and docked the port the next day. The launch was also problematic, as the launch was originally scheduled for June 1, but a technical glitch occurred four minutes before the launch, and Boeing had to postpone the launch again. And during the second launch window, Boeing still did not completely solve the problem, because in the final comprehensive test, there were cracks in many pipes of the spacecraft, and helium leaked slowly. If this problem occurs in space, it will not only cause the temperature of the spacecraft's propellant to be abnormal, but even cause an explosion.
Surprisingly, Boeing, knowing that the spacecraft was full of problems, but the pressure Boeing obviously couldn't wait, and completed the launch with potential risks. Even during the launch of the Boeing spacecraft, there were three helium leaks, and Boeing had to delay the return time of the spacecraft and set the return date on June 22. The spacecraft postponed its return, and the astronauts' food, drink, and lazar had to be completed on the spacecraft, and the original life resources were limited, and oxygen and water could basically be supplied for 6 days, barely supporting until June 22, but the most important thing was that the spacecraft was running out of fuel. Moreover, the location of the spacecraft is still hundreds of kilometers away from the space station, and it is impossible to dock in the short term, which leads to the fact that the astronauts can neither complete the repair nor get the relevant rescue, so they can only resign themselves to fate.
As far as the facts are concerned, Boeing's catastrophic accident was entirely self-inflicted. There should be no safety hazard in any part of the space launch mission, and knowing that there is a problem, the Boeing spacecraft still insists on taking off with a fault, which is completely irresponsible to the astronauts. The reason why Boeing has fallen to this point is related to the "deindustrialization" policy of the US government. In recent years, the United States has shut down nearly 20,000 military enterprises, a large number of scientific research personnel have flowed out, the US government only pays attention to military research and development, and has invested less and less in cutting-edge scientific research fields such as aerospace, and Boeing and other large enterprises have also lowered the threshold to recruit scientific research personnel and technicians, which has led to the increasing difficulty in the promotion of many projects.
Of course, the astronauts are innocent. It is imperative to make a plan for rescuing the astronauts as soon as possible. At present, NASA has urgently set up an interdepartmental task force to assess risks in real time and formulate a return plan. If we don't talk about the contradictions between China and the United States, Americans can actually turn to China for help. Because China's manned space program is at the forefront of the world, the "Shenzhou" series has carried out a total of 12 successful missions. However, the United States has made it clear in the law that space cooperation with China is prohibited. This time, will the Americans slap themselves in the face? We'll see.