Problems for the Starliner, the ship with which Boeing intended to offer NASA an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragonthey seem to have no end. I am not going to repeat everything that has happened since June, it is enough to remember that what was supposed to be the mission in which the Boeing ship would obtain certification to carry out this type of flight, has become a nightmare for the giant of the aeronautical and aerospace industry, which has had to face failures, delays, cost overruns and more.
A little over a week ago, after a tense wait, We finally learned that Starliner will soon return to Earth…but it will do so without its crew. Both NASA and Boeing have put their safety first and foremost, and instead of taking the risk of bringing them back in a ship that does not inspire the necessary confidence, they have opted for a “rescue plan” several months in advance, in which they will return to our planet in a SpaceX Crew Dragon as early as 2025.
Just yesterday I was reflecting on this situation, and What it could mean for Boeing. Currently, confidence in Starliner is far from being at its best, and the fact that security has prevented it from being the return vehicle for its crew adds even more (negative) points in this regard. So, if the return operation is completed successfully, there may still be some room for confidence, but if any additional incident were to occur, and especially if Starliner were to end up destroyed in the process, we can almost assume that it would be the end of Boeing’s project.
Starliner docked to the International Space Station flying over the Mediterranean. Image: NASA.
The problem is that problems keep appearing. Thus, as we can read in DigitalTrends, Now astronauts have started hearing a strange sound on the Starliner. And indeed, in this strange case it means that no one has been able to identify its reason for being, which for obvious reasons is most worrying. After hearing it, the mission control defined it as “a kind of pulsating noise, almost like a sonar beep”.
Hopefully, the combination of remotely obtained data and the knowledge of Starliner’s engineering teams will make it possible to determine the reason for this strange sound. Something fundamental, of course, to decide on the immediate future of the ship.The problem is that, with the amount of things that have already gone wrong with it, there is little room for optimism regarding the origin and meaning of that sound.
Images: NASA
Source: www.muycomputer.com
