Disclaimer: The content of this article is written with authoritative information combined with personal opinions, and the source of the literature has been marked at the end of the article, please be aware.
On June 28, 2024, NASA announced that the two astronauts who were originally scheduled to stay in space for a week had to stay for three weeks due to spacecraft failures, and now they will be postponed again.
What makes people laugh and cry is that this time the "culprit" who caused such a big scandal in the United States turned out to be Indians.
So, why was NASA "pitted" by the Indians? Will the mainland "save people"?
The purpose of this US space mission is to send two astronauts to the International Space Station in space, where they will work for a week before returning to Earth on a spacecraft.
However, this mission has been revealing "not going well" from the beginning. After a series of postponements, the spacecraft was successfully launched into space on June 5, 2024.
As a result, it didn't take long for me to receive a prompt that the "rocket propulsion system was abnormal", and after wandering in space for 25 hours, I finally arrived at the International Space Station, but I got a very embarrassing news: I knew how to go back when I went back, but I didn't know how to go back when I went back.
It turned out that this "starliner" responsible for carrying the mission was a manned vehicle designed by Boeing for NASA to transport astronauts into space.
However, during the first test flight in 2019, it was not able to enter orbit as planned, and the reason announced by NASA at the time was that there was a problem with the "automated system", not a hardware problem.
However, this is not the first time that the "gas valve" problem has occurred in this mission.
In several missions since 2019, the Starliner has had five thruster failures, five helium and oxygen leaks, and a propulsion system that has been scrapped due to propellant problems.
To the surprise of the astronauts, they actually "set off sick": the senior leaders of NASA and Boeing, the manufacturer of the "Starliner", insisted on launching the spacecraft despite knowing that there was a gas leakage problem.
Such a reality made the two astronauts think about it with great horror, who would have thought that space work that should be rigorous and safe would be so full of "excitement" and "thrill".
Now, the two astronauts are faced with the question of how to survive the psychological stress and equipment difficulties in space.
The problem faced by NASA and Boeing on the ground is, on the one hand, how to resolve the pressure brought by public opinion as soon as possible, and on the other hand, how to "bring back" the astronauts in the sky.
After a "careful" investigation, NASA discovered the root cause of the helium leak: the valve was of poor quality.
Because there had been a leakage of oxygen and helium valves in the past, Boeing concentrated on purchasing a batch of valves to replace them after the last problem, but did not purchase Russian parts, and because of the "Wolf Clause" formulated by the United States itself, it could not purchase mainland products.
In desperation, I can only choose Indian buyers who also have "certain ability". I have to admit that the United States is still very "inclusive" in this regard.
This time, the valve to be purchased is a titanium alloy valve that can work normally without being affected by temperature and pressure in space.
Who would have thought that in order to "maximize profits", Indian buyers would replace titanium alloy valves with aluminum alloy valves.
Although it is also an "alloy" product, it is not a little different in terms of quality, and of course, it is not a little worse in terms of price.
What's even more unbelievable is that such a delivery has successfully passed the review, and I don't know if it is because the current CEO Calhoun and the former president Millenberg are both of Indian origin.
Regardless of whether the reasons for the failure of Boeing's launches in the past few times were directly related to the Indians, in short, this time the United States was ruthlessly "pitted" by the "divine operation" of the Indians.
The cause of the accident was found, and the United States still could not solve the problem of returning the astronauts.
Although the damaged "Starliner" and a "Dragon spacecraft" of Musk's company are currently docked outside the International Space Station, they are not satisfactory.
Even if astronauts dare to take risks on Boeing's "starliner", NASA on the ground may not dare to bear the pressure of "accidents".
Although the "Dragon spacecraft" can carry 7 people, it was originally a return capsule for the other 7 astronauts in the space station, that is to say, a total of 9 people, who will leave and who will stay?
Therefore, now NASA and Boeing are both in an embarrassing situation. Some netizens put forward suggestions, such as asking the United States to "ask for help" from the continent that has just obtained lunar soil from the far side of the moon.
In fact, it is not impossible for the mainland to launch another spacecraft to the International Space Station to bring back a few astronauts, because the mainland is capable of accomplishing this task in terms of technology and experience in manned spaceflight.
In addition, when the first launch failed, technical experts from the space agency had already offered to let China's Shenzhou rocket "help" to solve the problem.
Indeed, since the mainland built the "Tiangong" space station, the technology has been very mature in both manned space flight and cargo transportation.
In addition, the mainland has adopted the launch mode of "sending one and preparing one", that is, after launching a spacecraft to perform a mission, there is another spare spacecraft on standby, such as our Shenzhou 19 is in a state of standby.
However, launching a rocket is also quite expensive, and it is still unknown whether we can agree to it.
According to a professional article in the journal Science China, the mainland's Shenzhou series of spacecraft, with three people on board and a maximum docking time of 150 days, will spend at least 850 million yuan per takeoff, or at least more than $125 million if converted into US dollars.
However, the United States is not trustworthy in terms of integrity, because the United States has a "bad record" in this regard.
In 2021, American astronaut Mark Vander Black was "accidentally" trapped in space for 355 days due to a spacecraft failure, and finally NASA "turned to" Russia to send him back to Earth.
However, Russia's manned spacecraft "Soyuz" is to send astronauts back to Earth from the International Space Station, which can be regarded as a "one-way ticket", and the fee is "34.3 million US dollars for a single seat", and the cost is much cheaper than the "round-trip ticket" that the mainland's Shenzhou takes off from the ground and then picks it up.
But even so, the United States procrastocratic and finally paid the final payment with great reluctance after more than a year.
In addition, there is, after all, a "Wolf Clause" in the United States that restricts the legitimacy of the United States to seek help from the mainland.
However, as far as the United States is concerned, any law and clause is "effective" only when it is "forceful to it," and it is very likely that it will take the initiative to seek help from the mainland.
However, whether we can consider extending a helping hand depends on whether the United States can abolish the unreasonable "Wolf Clause" and various other overlord clauses, otherwise it will naturally be "free from talking about everything."
Resources
[1] "Compared with the unit price, China's rockets have not lost to SpaceX" surging news
[2] "Interstellar Airliner" Deflating Incident: The Value of Titanium Alloy Reappears", Baoji Titanium Industry Research Institute
[3] "Two U.S. astronauts will continue to troubleshoot Boeing's "Starliner" and have been stranded in space for half a month" Jimu News