The Real Reason NASA's Keeping Boeing Starliner

The Real Reason NASA's Keeping Boeing Starliner

Boeing and SpaceX were selected by NASA in 2014 to each develop a new craft that would ferry astronauts to the International Space Station following the end of the Space Shuttle program.
While both companies were tasked with doing the same thing, the outcomes couldn't be more different.
SpaceX has operated its Crew Dragon capsule since March 2019 completing a total of eight missions, six for NASA and two privately funded ventures.
The CST-100 Starliner capsule is still in the test.
Years behind schedule and over-funded in comparison to SpaceX, Boeing’s Starliner is seemingly just an expensive missed opportunity.
However, NASA and outside experts all agree that the Starliner transportation option is still necessary.
So, why?
Everything will be exposed in today's episode of the Alpha tech channel.
Ok! Let's get started...

First, please understand for NASA's situation, redundancy is safety.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is the first time in American human spaceflight history that two methods of transportation to low-Earth orbit are meant to work in tandem.

The space shuttle program operated with five vehicles. However, when something happened to one of the vehicles, the entire program came to a screeching halt costing America access to its only space transportation system.

“When we lost Challenger, we were down two and a half years. And then in 2003 we lost Columbia and we were down another couple of years,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a Senate appropriations committee hearing.

Keith Crisman, assistant professor of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota also shared: “Redundancies are one of the best safety assurance programs. If you only have one way to and from space, and something happens or (a) system becomes problematic and requires grounding, it (could be) possible to have people stranded,” he continued.
“A wholly alternate system with the same capabilities can handle a major failure and still be capable of operating at nominal status,” said Crisman.

Even though the Starliner is years behind schedule, NASA believes the extra time has been invaluable for the development of a redundant and reliable program that can ensure safe transportation options for its astronauts.

"We're not simply going to put up crew and spacecraft that are not safe, even though we've contracted with a commercial company,” Nelson said.
Although Gerstenmaier expected Boeing’s proposal to be expensive, he believed it would be completed quicker than SpaceX’s citing Boeing’s history of “overall strong schedule performance combined with timely resolution of technical challenges on complex spaceflight development and operations work.”

A higher cost of development for Boeing was anticipated because its Starliner would need to be developed from scratch, as opposed to SpaceX’s proposal which would build out a crew variant of its Cargo Dragon vessel that at the time was already in operation transporting valuable supplies to and from the ISS.

The Real Reason NASA's Keeping Boeing Starliner