It’s not entirely clear how a company that failed to secure a door hatch on a 737 Max could put men into space.But now NASA and Boeing are announcing — for the third time — the delay of the Seattle-based company’s much vaunted Starliner space capsule, which is stuck at the gate on the International Space Station (ISS)..What was supposed to be a weeklong excursion has now stretched almost three weeks. The soonest a pair of astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — can return to Earth is June 26 at White Sands Harbour in New Mexico.Williams and Wilmore were launched aboard Starliner June 5 and arrived at the ISS following a 24-hour flight in which the spacecraft encountered four helium leaks and five failures of its 28 maneuvering thrusters.If it sounds a lot like the problems plaguing Boeing’s terrestrial aircraft — including the 737 Max, the 767, the 777, and the 787 Dreamliner — it is. All have had issues of some kind, ranging from software glitches that killed more than 300 people, mid-air engine fires or wheels that fell off and destroyed parked cars near airports.Company officials dismissed concerns by saying it’s not unusual for astronauts to face delays on space flights. The Starliner is approved to stay up to 45 days at the ISS if necessary.This is the Starliner’s maiden flight, aimed at securing NASA certification for routine space missions alongside the SpaceX Crew Dragon and secure contracts from the civilian space agency.Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, told a news conference this week that his team needs “a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis and make sure we’re really ready to come home.”.However, the most recent delay isn’t exactly bolstering public faith in the Boeing craft or the company in general, after its CEO Dale Calhoun was on the hot seat at a US Senate hearing this week where he admitted that so-called ‘whistleblowers’ were hounded out of the company for disclosing shortcomings in its manufacturing processes.He apologized directly to the families of 346 people killed in successive crashes of its 737 Max 8 aircraft in 2018 and 2019.“I apologize for the grief that we have caused,” he told the families, while reiterating that the Boeing safety culture “is far from perfect.” He will step down as CEO later this year.That didn’t stop senators from calling for prosecution of high ranking officials while victims are demanding a $25 billion fine.That prompted SpaceX owner Elon Musk to gloat on Twitter (“X”) — which he owns — that Boeing has “too many non-technical engineers.”
