Boeing lost in space: Did 'focus on profits over engineering' mar ISS mission overwhelmed by issues

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00:00Next, two astronauts, who should have been back on Earth weeks ago, said this Wednesday

00:05that they're confident the Boeing's space capsule can return them safely in spite of

00:10breakdowns.

00:11NASA test pilots Bush Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing's new Starliner capsule

00:17early last month.

00:18They were the first people to ride it.

00:20They should have been back by now, but they are still, as you can see, in a state of weightlessness

00:26in orbit.

00:27Here at France 24, Caitlin Kelly with this.

00:32A mission only scheduled for eight days now rolls into its fifth week, as the Boeing Starliner's

00:39return journey has been repeatedly postponed due to leaks and thruster failures.

00:45Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are confident they can return home after testing.

00:50In the meantime, their spirits are high aboard the International Space Station.

00:55We've been thoroughly busy up here, integrated right into the crew, and every once a week

01:01we get to jump into Starliner and talk to our control team there.

01:05The system that enables the capsule to back away from the space station into the Earth's

01:09atmosphere is faulty.

01:11Boeing have branded this moment as advantageous, a chance to do further checks while the craft

01:16is still in orbit.

01:18This is the world of test.

01:21This is a tough business that we're in.

01:23Human spaceflight is not easy in any regime and there have been multiple issues with every

01:29spacecraft that's ever been designed and that's the nature of what we do.

01:34That mantra you've heard, failure is not an option, that's why we are staying here now.

01:39We did have some degradation in our thrusters and we know that and that's why we're staying

01:43because we're going to test it.

01:45That's what we do.

01:46A year behind schedule and $1.5 billion over budget, this NASA Boeing mission had experienced

01:52technical issues before it left Earth.

01:56After multiple incidents and two high-profile crashes in recent years, Starliner, Boeing's

02:01first manned expedition, was pegged as a reputation rebuilder.

02:06With no timeline for return, the astronauts might have to jump aboard SpaceX's Dragon

02:11spacecraft to get home.

02:16Thanks to Kate and Kelly for that report.

02:17Let's get some broader analysis.

02:18David Mamoun brings us his from Toulouse, joining us live, Professor Mamoun.

02:23Thanks for being with us.

02:24Thank you.

02:25Clarify for me, because from a layman's perspective, I feel like I'm having the wool pull over

02:30my eyes.

02:31As the French would put it, I've been sort of rolled in the flour kind of thing.

02:34What would you say to that?

02:36No, actually, we've got good reasons to believe what the astronauts said, what Butch Wilmore

02:45said, because actually, this is a flight which is designed to test the readiness of the overall

02:54systems.

02:55And so, it's not absolutely unusual to get some problems.

03:00Typically, when you compare to other system tests, like SpaceX, you've got also failures.

03:07And what happens at this time is that they just scenarize the failures and tell you,

03:12wow, look, it blows up.

03:15And now, they're just saying plain and plain, OK, we've got a problem, we're going to investigate.

03:21So basically, what you're seeing here is different ways of coping with the difficulty of flight

03:28systems.

03:29Elon Musk, well known as a self-promotionalist, and of course, SpaceX, according to him, is

03:33absolutely fantastic, no problems whatsoever, but it appears to be working.

03:37Is the big issue with this, and I'm satisfied by your explanation, I should put away my

03:41natural scepticism.

03:43But when you look at Boeing's record down to earth, with the issues of various aircraft,

03:49understandably people might have doubts.

03:51Absolutely.

03:52Absolutely.

03:53I think there are two underlying things behind that.

03:58First, as I said, it's not unusual to get some issues.

04:02And here, there are two types of issues.

04:03There is a pressurization of tanks with helium.

04:07Helium is a very light gas.

04:11And so, it's very easy to get a leak, to get the pressurization.

04:16The more problematic issue here is that they've got experience problems with the thrusters,

04:24and the thrusters did not work correctly.

04:26And so, they had to dock by hand, so that they were able to do that very efficiently.

04:34But on the other hand, and I think you're right, there is an overall doubt on the whole

04:39space and the Boeing ways of doing things.

04:42Because actually, some people say that Boeing has been more focused on making profits rather

04:49than pure engineering.

04:51And here at Joupero, of course, we are raising engineers and we are training them to be the

04:57best efficient.

04:58And of course, from an engineering point of view, we want the engineers to be in charge

05:02and not the financial ways of seeing things.

05:06And that's probably one of the underlying issues behind this skepticism about the problems

05:12of the system.

05:15But the Starliner will be actually, their explanation is absolutely correct.

05:23When the Starliner will go back on Earth, they will destroy actually the module with

05:28the thrusters.

05:29And so, they want to get some more data while they are still in orbit in order to get some

05:36corrections for the next flight that will happen, as they say, probably one year from

05:40now.

05:41And you mentioned, David, docking by hand.

05:44That sounds incredibly primitive.

05:45It's not as silly as I'm imagining it.

05:47Is it docking by hand?

05:48Yeah, kind of.

05:49Really?

05:50There are backups and backups and backups.

05:53Actually, there are systems, automated systems that can help docking, that can make the docking,

06:01which is very, very precise.

06:04I mean, it's a fraction of a centimeter.

06:08And what they said is that they're finally, with the help of their systems, they were

06:14in control of the systems in order to get the docking.

06:17But the docking was incredibly precise and efficient.

06:22But that's a problem.

06:23When you've got too much failure, you need to be able to count on an experienced crew.

06:30And that's what happened, actually.

06:32David Muin of Space Systems Toulouse, thank you, sir, for joining us and giving us that

06:37very detailed and clear explanation about what is happening all those miles above us

06:41in the atmosphere.

06:42Thank you very much indeed for watching for all developments as they come back down to

06:46Earth.

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