Fuel leaks in Boeing Starliner spacecraft delay test launches for NASA

An
illustration of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spaceship flying
around Earth.

Boeing

• NASA is about to name astronaut crews for the first
  commercial spaceships, built by
  Boeing and SpaceX.
• Neither company met NASA’s original goal to finish
  building and certifying its spaceships in 2017 and now
  hope to do so in 2019.
• However, a recently discovered fuel leak in Boeing’s
  spacecraft, called the CST-100 Starliner, has
  resulted in new delays.
• If no American spaceship is ready by the end of next
  year, NASA might temporarily have no way to reach the International Space
  Station.

NASA is preparing to
name a batch of astronauts who will fly the first-ever
commercial spaceships: the CST-100 Starliner built by Boeing and
Crew Dragon built SpaceX.

But the agency is staring down a real possibility that it might
not be able to send people into space after next year.

That risk likely increased after Boeing discovered a problem in a
new spacecraft system the company designed for NASA.

The issue — a fuel leak — appeared on June 2, as Ars Technica
first reported, when Boeing
test-fired four thrusters designed to propel the Starliner away
from a potential launchpad emergency.

“Our team is off fixing those problems, and the result of that
test series is that we will have a better and safer spacecraft,”
John Mulholland, Boeing’s vice president and Starliner program
manager, told reporters during a call on Wednesday.

Mulholland added that the time and effort spent finding the root
cause of the leak and making a fix has delayed several future
Starliner tests. Those delays include a test of the Starliner’s
emergency escape system. They also include two crewed test
launches, the first of which is now pushed back five to six
months to mid-2019.

NASA requires all of the tests to be completed before the agency
will certify the Starliner for routine spaceflight.

Boeing and SpaceX could finish their certification by the end of
next year, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report
published in July. But if there are any more delays, NASA is at
risk of
hitting a worrisome wall in 2019.

How NASA astronauts could temporarily lose access to space

The International Space
Station (ISS).
NASA

The possibility that astronauts might have no way to fly to space
began when the US government decided to retire NASA’s space
shuttle fleet.

In July 2011, the final space shuttle mission landed back on
Earth. It was the last American spacecraft certified to carry
humans that reached the International Space Station (ISS).

Access to the ISS — a
$150-billion, football-field-size laboratory in the sky — is
crucial for researching technologies that could enable lunar and
Mars missions, according to NASA. So to replace its space shuttle
and avoid a worrisome flight gap, the agency created a
multi-billion-dollar competition called the Commercial Crew
Program.

The goal was to spur private American companies to design safer,
more affordable spaceships for NASA. Boeing and SpaceX emerged as
the two top winners.

A
Soyuz spacecraft rocketing a three-person crew toward the space
station on December 17, 2017.

Shamil
Zhumatov/Reuters

While the companies have been working on their new ships, NASA
has been
paying Russia increasingly exorbitant sums to fly its
astronauts to space. The US astronauts ride with cosmonauts on
Soyuz spacecraft — currently the only ship that can taxi to and
from the space station. (NASA
is forbidden by law from working with
China and its human spaceflight program.)

However, in anticipation of SpaceX and Boeing’s new ships — which
were originally supposed to be ready for flight in 2017 — NASA
paused orders for seats on Soyuz. So now Russia is slated to fly
its last US astronauts in 2019.

To prepare Soyuz missions beyond 2019, Russia wants three years’
notice, NASA has said. So even if the agency made a Soyuz order
today, it would take Russia until 2021 for that mission to be
ready. (A NASA spokesperson told Business Insider in an email
that “the three-year ask for Soyuz missions has been consistent
with previous planning, and is not a new requirement.”)

This has created a possibility that the US could temporary lose
access to space. If neither Boeing or SpaceX can get a ship
NASA-certified by the end of 2019, astronauts may be grounded
until one of the companies meets NASA’s requirements or Russia
delivers a new Soyuz mission.

For now, Boeing and SpaceX both still appear to be on track for
NASA certification in 2019, according to the GAO report. But the
Commercial Crew Program is experimental, which means a problem
could pop up at the last moment.

That’s exactly what happened with Boeing’s system.

“The issues that we have seen are not out of standing with
typical development program challenges across all companies and
all industries,” Mulholland said. “These development programs are
hard, especially for these human spacecraft vehicles.”

About those leaky fuel valves

A
diagram of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for
NASA.

Boeing/NASA;
Business Insider

Boeing’s leak problem first appeared during an on-the-ground “hot
fire” test at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

When a Starliner spaceship gets prepared for launch, it will be
attached to a ring-shaped service module. Everything will then be
put on top of an Atlas V rocket.

Inside that service module are multiple thrusters, four of which
are designed to serve an emergency launchpad-escape system. If
there’s a problem with the rocket that Starliner is supposed to
ride into orbit, these thrusters can quickly blast the ship and
its crew away from the launchpad and toward safety.

A
thruster designed to help Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner blast away
from a launchpad in an emergency.

Aerojet
Rocketdyne

Each thruster, built by Boeing subcontractor
Aerojet Rocketdyne, has two valves — one for propellant and
one for oxidizer — making eight valves in total. When mixed
together with heat, the fuel rapidly burns and produces up to
40,000 lbs of thrust.

All four thrusters successfully fired for 1.5 seconds during the
test, Boeing said, yet began leaking fuel right after the burn.

The company declined to answer Business Insider’s emailed
questions about whether the fuel-leak problem might endanger
astronauts. However, it’s possible this could lead to a fire
outside the Starliner or perhaps even an explosion.

“Flight safety and risk mitigation are why we conduct such
rigorous testing, and anomalies are a natural part of any test
program,” Boeing said in an email.

On Tuesday, Aviation Week reported that four of the
eight valves stuck open to cause the leak. Mulholland confirmed
that report on Wednesday.

“We’ve completed the root-cause investigation and determined what
caused those valves to stick open,” he said, adding that tweaks
to both software and hardware are expected to fix the problem.

No back-up plan for reaching space?

An
illustration of a NASA astronaut flying with Boeing’s CST-100
Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space
capsules.
NASA/Kennedy Space Center
(via Flickr); Boeing; Shayanne Gal/Business
Insider

Given the number of delays with the Commercial Crew Program and
its experimental nature, it’s anyone’s guess if Boeing or SpaceX
will close the spaceflight gap that’s threatening NASA.

When asked if NASA is confident that it can avoid a loss of
access to space, an agency spokesperson told Business Insider
that the spacecraft and rockets “must meet the agency’s safety
and technical criteria before the companies will be certified to
launch crews into space,” and that “successfully meeting those
requirements has always taken precedence over schedule.”

NASA would not say what its back-up plan is for accessing the
space station beyond 2019, should Boeing or SpaceX not deliver a
certified spacecraft in time to avoid the gap.

“As part of its normal operations planning, NASA is continuing to
assess multiple scenarios to ensure continued US access to the
International Space Station,” the spokesperson said. “The agency
is working closely with its commercial partners and is preparing
for potential schedule adjustments experienced during spacecraft
development.”

Mulholland suggested that the new problem and resulting delays
aren’t unexpected, given the complexity of equipment necessary to
safely launch people into space.

“We laid out a very challenging and aggressive schedule, and we
have had several slips in that plan,” he said on the call. “That
said, our commitment hasn’t wavered to make sure that we do
everything that we laid out to do in our plan, which will ensure
that — when we fly — we’re going to fly with the utmost mission
safety and success.”

On Friday, NASA plans to announce the astronauts who will fly on
upcoming crewed missions. The agency may also present a more
current schedule for SpaceX and Boeing’s certification flights.

You can
watch the announcement live here.