Two United States astronauts, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, have been on the ISS for 51 days, and the Boeing Starliner that picked them up has not been repaired.
On the 25th local time, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held a press conference and said that NASA and Boeing have not yet determined the return date of the "starliner" docked on the space station.
"We don't have any major news today about the return date." Steve Stich, a NASA project manager, said, "We're making tremendous progress, but we're not ready to do so." ”
Recently, Boeing is still in trouble: the "Starliner" has been developed for ten years and postponed many times, but after the manned maiden flight was finally realized, there was an embarrassing situation of not being able to return; Boeing recently accepted a plea agreement from the United States Department of Justice to conspire to defraud the United States FAA in two 737 MAX crashes, faces a $243.6 million fine, and pledges to spend at least $455 million over the next three years on compliance rectification.
Yves Doz, a professor of global technology and innovation at INSEAD, who has studied Boeing for many years, believes these are just the latest in a series of unfortunate and sometimes fatal incidents, including two fatal crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX planes, which have undermined public confidence in Boeing.
"Boeing's other new aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 long-haul Dreamliner, are also facing stalled development, delays in regulatory approvals, and severe initial failures such as battery fires. Even the famous Boeing 777 was temporarily grounded due to safety concerns, and the latest version was developed four years later than originally planned. Dong Si told the first financial reporter that the once brilliant company is faltering in the crisis.
The Starliner had problems such as thruster failure and helium leakage
According to public information, the "Starliner" is a reusable cone-shaped spaceship with a height of about 3 meters, a maximum diameter of about 4.6 meters, and can carry up to 7 passengers.
After years of development and three postponements, it finally lifted off on June 5 to send two NASA astronauts and about 345 kilograms of cargo to the International Space Station.
According to the original plan, the two astronauts will carry out an eight-day test mission, involving a total of 87 test targets, and then return to Earth on a "starliner". But as of press time, the two astronauts have been in space for almost two months.
It is reported that NASA and Boeing have been analyzing a series of helium leaks and "starliner" thrusters (miniature engines used in space capsules to maneuver in space) recently. Engineers from both companies recently completed ground testing of Starliner thrusters at United States' White Sands facility in New Mexico to see how the capsule's hardware behaves at different stages of spaceflight.
The test results suggest that Teflon seals may be one of the causes of thruster problems. After more space testing is expected this weekend, NASA and Boeing plan to conduct a major review, possibly later next week, to determine if the team is ready to send Wilmore and Williams home on a Starliner. If the review goes well, the mission team will determine the time when the Starliner will leave the space station.
At the press conference, NASA and Boeing insisted that the main plan was for the Starliner to send back two astronauts, but they also said they had been working on backup options, one of which could be the use of the Dragon capsule from SpaceX, another of NASA's commercial partners.
However, Stich declined to say more about the possibility of such a contingency plan. "We have two different flight systems. Obviously, the alternate scenario is to use a different system. I don't want to talk about all these details. He said.
At the same time, NASA reauthorized the Starliner's battery, extending its range in orbit from the original 45 days to 90 days. This means that the capsule can dock with the space station until early September, if needed.
Boeing facing fines and "rectification".
Despite the Starliner's unfavorable performance and its ongoing collapse, government procurement contracts in the defense business have become increasingly important as Boeing's business jet business revenue has declined.
Boeing's financial report shows that the company's defense and space business generated $7 billion in revenue in the first quarter of this year, up 6% from the same period last year. United States government contracts accounted for 37% of its 2023 revenue.
Industry insiders believe this may be the reason why Boeing pleaded guilty so quickly in connection with two fatal crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX airliners.
Ben · Tsocanos, director of aviation at S&P Global Ratings in United States, believes that the economic cost of the plea deal is "relatively manageable" and that Boeing is expected to remain one of the key suppliers of defense and space products after the guilty plea.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the United States Department of Justice submitted a plea agreement with Boeing to a federal court on the 24th, in which Boeing admitted to "conspiring to defraud" the United States government in the process of seeking airworthiness certification for its 737 MAX model, accepting a fine of $243.6 million.
Earlier, Boeing and the United States Department of Justice reached a plea agreement in early July regarding the fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX airliners in 2018 and 2019.
This time, Boeing also pledged to invest at least $455 million in compliance rectification over the next three years. The plea agreement also calls for the appointment of an independent monitor for a three-year term to report annually to the public on Boeing's improvements.
In Dons's view, Boeing's problems began with a misplaced takeover of McDonnell Douglas.
"Although the name of McDonnell Ethnell Doesnnell Doesn't quietly leave the company's name, McDonnell Douglas' management team has not quietly left." As a result, he explains, Boeing's idealistic engineering team ended up being run by McDonnell Douglas veterans, "who are accountants, financial controllers, and other executives who are obsessed with saving costs and are used to running the company on a shoestring budget." They are also very sensitive to the wealth of their shareholders. ”
Dons said that after acquiring McDonnell Douglas, Boeing wants to minimize its own costs and investment. To that end, Boeing has brought in new risk-sharing partners from Japan, the United States, Italy, Korea and other countries where the aviation industry is not yet closely connected with its rival Airbus. This means that Boeing is able to minimize its own investment and focus on overall system integration and final assembly, subcontracting the fabrication of aircraft structures to partners.
However, "the civil airliner market has been highly cyclical for decades. Fluctuations in demand create peaks and troughs in engineering and production demand. Over time, the new cost-conscious new Boeing is increasingly taking measures to lay off employees when demand decreases. Many experienced workers and engineers were laid off, but when demand picked up, Boeing found that they could no longer be hired. As a result, Boeing has increasingly relied on partners and subcontractors to make up for technical shortcomings, but has lost practical experience and ability to actually design and build aircraft, Donce said.
He argues that Boeing has lost some of its deep industrial competitiveness by focusing on system integration and final assembly as it has become more reliant on partners. In the face of increasing competition from rival Airbus, Boeing turned to composite materials, making the transition more difficult while also imposing a cost-saving culture on itself. Poor corporate governance, a full order book, and an irrational and informative board of directors make it impossible to realistically perceive and assess the dangers facing Boeing.
Facing the "rectification" ahead, Dons said the biggest challenge for the company was how to overcome the quality control issues that arose from the complexity and fragmentation of its supply system.
(This article is from Yicai)