'We test, test and test': Boeing Starliner ready to launch astronauts

It is no secret that many are visibly wary of The Boeing Company. Plagued by some high-profile and serious problems with their aircrafts, on top of the lengthy time it took to get the Starliner spacecraft ready for this inaugural crewed flight, the company has been making news lately and not in a welcome way.

As a USA TODAY aviation reporter put it recently, "Boeing is rightfully under a microscope right now."

So how does that reflect on Monday's planned crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station? Is Boeing's Starliner ready to fly?

Both Boeing and NASA are saying a firm yes.

"We have very robust processes, and the certificate of readiness process that we use to review everything ... the design certification process, they are all very robust," Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Starliner program, said during a March NASA news conference. "And the proof of that is the fact that the problems we have caught in the past have been caught as part of that process."

During a recent Flight Readiness Review, NASA Associate Administrator James Free said, “The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone. The lives of our crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are at stake. We don’t take that lightly at all.”

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Boeing's public image undergoing scrutiny

FLORIDA TODAY spoke with Don Platt, an associate professor of space systems from Florida Institute of Technology, on the topic of Boeing's current public image. He said it's important to keep in mind that while Boeing has recently seen problems with their commercial aircraft, Boeing Space is a different division.

“Boeing commercial aircraft and space divisions are managed by essentially a whole different crew of people,” said Platt.

Boeing has separate divisions of management leading all the way back to the CEO, Platt said. For example, there are separate executive vice presidents for space and commercial aviation.

He gave the analogy of the automobile company GM, and how the company had multiple different car brands such as Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Chevrolet.

As to the issues on the airline side of Boeing, Platt also added that some of the 737 Max problems were traced back to pilots not fully understanding new software.

Then Boeing has faced other issues that could be tracked more to maintenance problems with the airlines rather than Boeing quality control.

Neither of these issues would be a factor on the space side of the company, as Boeing is working closely with NASA, Platt said.

Where there might be commonalities could be on the overall Boeing culture. “There is certainly maybe a Boeing philosophy that’s going on, and many companies have kind of pursued a philosophy of trying to design everything on a computer and even test it on a computer, and I don’t know that it always works as good as they hoped it would," Platt said.

But Platt emphasized that NASA would not agree to put its astronauts onboard if it wasn't confident of success.

Getting Boeing Starliner ready for crewed flight

That doesn't mean there might not be issues that arise during this upcoming flight, experts noted.

“This is a new spacecraft. I’ll also remind you, this is a test flight," NASA's Free said during the Flight Readiness Review. “We have some unknowns in this mission, being a test flight, we may encounter things we don’t expect. But our job now is to remain vigilant and keep looking for issues.”

The first uncrewed test flight of Starliner (OFT-1) launched in 2019, and while it reached orbit, it failed to reach the ISS. The follow up flight test (OFT-2) launched in 2022, and while it met standards of docking to the ISS and successfully landing, multiple issues were discovered as Boeing crews inspected the spacecraft later on.

During the Flight Readiness Review, it was stated that the issues found during that 2022 flight, including the flammability of the tape used onboard and parachute problems, have been fixed. It was mentioned that 90% of the tape was replaced and a January drop test of the parachutes was a success.

“There are many elements of this mission that have similarity to hardware that will fly on Orion —parachutes as an example. So this is important across our entire agency.” Free added.

On the ground side, NASA stated that during prelaunch inspections, a questionable valve on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 41, the pad Starliner will launch from, was replaced. This valve has nothing to do with the spacecraft, as it is responsible for flowing liquid oxygen into the Atlas V rocket.

“I can tell you, the team worked through every bit of data that we had to look at. As management team, I know that the teams that reviewed that data before it was brought to us looked at it even more closely. So, when we polled today, the team polled ‘go’,” said Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, during the Flight Readiness Review on April 25.

Boeing: "We test, test and test."

During a March NASA news conference, Nappi spoke on Boeing's behalf when it comes to the readiness of their spacecraft.

"I joined Boeing in 2015 and I was on the SLS (Space Launch System) program. From the moment I walked in the door, safety and quality were always number one priority. And that hasn't changed," said Nappi.

"Our process in human spaceflight is very robust. We design around redundancy. Everything that's critical has some level of redundancy in it, so that if something fails we have a backup system to go to," added Nappi. "We test, test, and test."

Starliner passes NASA requirements

NASA officials stated that they looked deep into the preflight performance of Starliner as part of the process to go forward.

Spaceflight never comes without risk, yet NASA requires that risk be low. The loss of crew requirement is 1 in 270 and Boeing comes out with a slightly lower 1 in 295, according to Steve Stich, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Meanwhile, the loss of mission requirement for NASA is 1 in 55 and Boeing demonstrates a 1 in 57. Stich gave these numbers during the Flight Readiness Review.

Starliner is also equipped with the ability to abort should something go wrong during accent.

Why does NASA need Boeing Starliner?

Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA established its Commercial Crew Program. After a series of reviews, SpaceX and Boeing were selected to provide spacecrafts that would transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit.

Awarded the contract in 2014, Boeing received $4.8 billion while SpaceX received $3.1 billion.

Bob Cabana, NASA astronaut, former Kennedy Space Center director and former NASA associate administrator, said continued access to the International Space Station and low Earth orbit requires both the Dragon and Starliner to work well.

"I'm so looking forward to having Boeing being able to fly CFT here on May 6," said Cabana.

He added that should SpaceX’s Dragon face issues that keep it from flying, NASA will need a way to continue transportation to the ISS. “We want that dissimilar redundancy,” said Cabana. “We want to have a way to ensure access to the International Space Station to ensure access to space."

"NASA doesn't want to have to be the sole person. The Space Station is extremely expensive. We want to maintain a presence in low-Earth orbit, but we want to be one of the many customers," said Cabana.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Boeing, NASA say Starliner spacecraft ready for ISS missions