Recently, the United States used an interstellar airliner to send two astronauts into space and could not come back, and the round-trip ticket became a one-way ticket because of the helium leak, but the results of the investigation pointed directly to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China Shaanxi Hongyuan Aviation Forging Technology Company, what is going on?
Shaanxi Hongyuan Aviation Forging Technology Co., Ltd. innocently said that it was on the entity list of the United States of America, "enjoying" sanctions treatment, and had no business dealings, how could you take me to "take the blame".
Before revealing the secret, let's introduce Boeing's starliner, also known as Starline, which is a commercial manned spacecraft developed by Boeing for NASA. With a diameter of 4.56 meters, the spacecraft is slightly thicker than the command module of the Apollo spacecraft and slightly thinner than the Orion spacecraft. The spacecraft can carry a massive crew of up to seven people, stay in orbit for up to seven months, and can be reused up to the tenth mission. Most launch vehicles in the United States can launch Starliner spacecraft.
The Starliner was developed in the context of the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the National Space Administration (NASA) competing two private commercial companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to develop a vehicle to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
In 2014, when Musk was still struggling to survive the company, and SpaceX was not yet as good as it is today, NASA partially awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to build a "starliner".
In the actual operation process, the "interstellar airliner" has been plagued by technology. When the Starliner completed its maiden voyage in Florida on December 20, 2019, the spacecraft's timer was wrong, causing too much propellant to burn, and it had problems flying 1/3 of the way, deviating from its original course and helium began to leak, unable to reach the International Space Station, and had to return to Earth 6 days early on December 22.
In 2020, the unconvinced Boeing conducted another test flight, although the spacecraft entered orbit, but the problems were far more than imagined, one would be a leak in the sealed cabin, one would be a failure of the propulsion system valve, one would be a broken cable, and one would be a helium leak........
During the entire development process, the helium leakage of the starliner had 8 problems! Boeing played steadily, and it couldn't get through again and again, NASA was anxious, and directly scolded Boeing: "Do you still have a spectrum or not, China's Chang'e-6 is now digging on the back of the moon and coming back, and we can't even do a space flight." ”
Because of the frequent problems, the project was seriously behind schedule and the budget was overrun. Boeing has already lost more than $1.5 billion on the project. Boeing is also facing scrutiny from NASA's inspector general because of Boeing's outrageous offer, which costs $90 million per seat for the spacecraft, more than 60 percent more than the $55 million for the Dragon spacecraft, a manned spacecraft developed by Musk's company SpaceX.
To catch up, Boeing launched astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams into space on its first manned mission to Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024.
The spacecraft also carried 345 kilograms of cargo on board, including food and necessities. They will stay on the space station for about 8 days to test the spacecraft and its subsystems.
The spacecraft docked with the ISS at 12:15 on June 6 as planned, but as it approached the station, five of the Starliner's 28 thrusters malfunctioned and could not operate normally, making it impossible to adjust the spacecraft's angle.
The two astronauts tried everything they could to get four of the thrusters to fire again, but the spacecraft missed the first docking opportunity and was delayed by a day to dock with the ISS on June 7.
At 13:34, the spacecraft successfully docked with the space station. At 15:46, the hatch opened, and astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams entered the ISS to meet the other seven people. The two will stay on the International Space Station for at least a week, focusing on testing the performance of the Starliner.
By the time June 14 was ready to return as planned, the starliner had multiple helium leaks and booster failures.
Subsequently, Boeing and NASA have repeatedly postponed the return time of the spacecraft to Earth, from the 20th to the 22nd to the 24th and 26th, and now the latest return time of the interstellar route is expected to be in July 2024, as for which day is uncertain, because there are 31 days in July, which is a time adjustment and decision compared to February.
The main reason for this delay is a helium leak. Helium is an inert gas that pressurizes and pressurizes the fuel of rockets in a high vacuum environment to propel spacecraft forward.
When rockets and spacecraft fly in space, the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen carried by the rocket itself are powered by helium in a vacuum environment, and the two are pressed from the fuel pipeline into the combustion chamber to complete combustion.
Once the ammonia leaks or is gone, the spacecraft becomes a living coffin, out of control, and can only float in space. If the combustion ratio gets out of control, it will cause the propellant temperature to spike, or even cause the spacecraft to explode.
The sealing system of the Boeing spacecraft has always been bad, and it leaks air at every turn, and helium leakage is a long-standing problem of Boeing, which has not been solved.
The crux of the problem has been found, and it is a repetitive question, why the mistakes of the past are repeated, how corrective measures and preventive measures are carried out, and under the pressure of public opinion, the US Department of Defense urgently launched an investigation.
It may be that Boeing's public relations gave a lot of money, and the results of the investigation by the US Department of Defense came out, and the spearhead was actually directed at China Aviation Industry Corporation Shaanxi Hongyuan Aviation Forging Technology Company, believing that a batch of titanium alloys provided by this company to Boeing in 2019 had quality problems.
The helium leak is related to the sealant, how did it get involved with the titanium alloy parts?
In the face of the unwarranted disaster, the forging group of Shaanxi Hongyuan Airlines issued a statement that we were included in the entity sanctions list by the United States and had no channels to supply products to Boeing. The company did export a batch of titanium alloys in 2019, but the customer was Turkey.
Turkey did not want to take the blame, and immediately issued a statement: "We do not produce titanium alloys, because we can't produce them, we are just porters of titanium alloys." We did import a batch of titanium alloys from China, but I sold them to Italy. ”
Seeing that the ball was kicked at its feet, Italy stood up and said: "We did buy a batch of titanium alloys from Turkey, and ordered another batch from India because it was not enough. Later, the United States came to the door, and we kept China's titanium alloy for our own use, and sold India's titanium alloy to the United States. "The reason for Italy's operation does not need to be said that you and I both know.
"These products sold to the United States are certified by the European Union and there are no problems with the products," Italy said. ”
In the end, India jumped out and said: "After the United States uses it, it first directly finds us for procurement, so as to avoid middlemen making the difference." Then he said that the cost was too high and asked for a price reduction, so we replaced the titanium alloy with an aluminum alloy, and after sending it over, the American quality inspection did not say that there was a problem. This batch of parts is also used in fighter jets such as the F-35, and it is the first time that it has been used in Starliners. ”
The United States imposed sanctions on the mainland, and as a result, the mainland's parts were used in a false way, using European countries such as Turkey and Italy, like a crab bathing through a stream of water, and immediately became made in Europe and the United States or made in India, and swaggered into the US market.
Do such sanctions work? Because of the nature of capitalism, making money comes first. Europe and the United States will start with Chinese electric vehicles, and the results will only be the same.