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posted by janrinok on Sunday March 08 2020, @07:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the test-or-try dept.

Boeing hit with 61 safety fixes for astronaut capsule:

In releasing the outcome of a joint investigation, NASA said it still has not decided whether to require Boeing to launch the Starliner again without a crew, or go straight to putting astronauts on board.

Douglas Loverro, NASA's human exploration and operation chief, told reporters that Boeing must first present a plan and schedule for the 61 corrective actions. Boeing expects to have a plan in NASA's hands by the end of this month.

Loverro said the space agency wants to verify, among other things, that Boeing has retested all the necessary software for Starliner.

"At the end of the day, what we have got to decide is ... do we have enough confidence to say we are ready to fly with a crew or do we believe that we need another uncrewed testing," Loverro said.

Boeing's Jim Chilton, a senior vice president, said his company is ready to repeat a test flight without a crew, if NASA decides on one.

"'All of us want crew safety No. 1," Chilton said. "Whatever testing we've got to do to make that happen, we embrace it."

Loverro said he felt compelled to designate the test flight as a "high-visibility close call." He said that involves more scrutiny of Boeing and NASA to make sure mistakes like this don't happen again.

Software errors not only left the Starliner in the wrong orbit following liftoff and precluded a visit to the International Space Station but they could have caused a collision between the capsule and its separated service module toward the end of the two-day flight. That error was caught and corrected by ground controllers just hours before touchdown.

Citation: Boeing hit with 61 safety fixes for astronaut capsule (2020, March 6) retrieved 6 March 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-03-boeing-safety-astronaut-capsule.html

Previously:

NASA Safety Panel Calls for Reviews after Second Starliner Software Problem
737 Max Fix Slips To Summer--And That's Just One Of Boeing's Problems
Boeing Starliner Lands Safely in the Desert After Failing to Reach Correct Orbit
Boeing's Failed Starliner Mission Strains 'Reliability' Pitch
Starliner Fails to Make Journey to ISS
Boeing Provides Damage Control After Inspector General's Report on Commercial Crew Program
Boeing Received 'Unnecessary' Contract Boost for Astronaut Capsule, Watchdog Says
Boeing Performs Starliner Pad Abort Test. Declares Success Though 1 of 3 Parachutes Fails to Deploy.
Boeing Readies "Astronaut" for Likely October Test Launch
Reuters: Boeing Starliner Flights to the ISS Delayed by at Least Another 3 Months
SpaceX, Boeing (and NASA) Push Back 1st Test Launches of Private Spaceships
Launch of Boeing's Starliner Commercial Crew Vehicle Could be Delayed by Thruster Issue
Boeing Crewed Test Flight to the ISS May be Upgraded to a Full Mission

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  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday March 08 2020, @09:16PM (2 children)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Sunday March 08 2020, @09:16PM (#968285)

    The thing is, this is largely a Boeing problem, not a NASA problem. Your argument is reasonable, and I'm sure it applies elsewhere. In this case, though, I think it's management cutting corners.

    This applies to NASA as well, there are none of the original "Steely eyed missile men" left, and those that might still qualify for the tittle tend to be ignored or otherwise marginalized because the issues they point out will cost time/money/PR to fix that the admin doesn't want to spend.

    And it isn't just Boeing. All the major companies involved with NASA no longer have many, if any, of the people who worked on the early days of the space programs. Many experienced workers were laid off during the slump in the late '80s-early 90's and by now many have just retired.

    The current generation of engineers/developers don't have the mindsets to actually care about the fact that what they create, be it hardware or software, will actually have someone's life depending on it. I saw it when I was teaching embedded programming, I had students from places like Boeing, Lockeed, Raytheon, etc., the older ones who had years of experience were on the ball, they paid attention, the younger students ddin't really care about how to test for race conditions or memory leaks because either they didn't think it mattered or wasn't their problem or they thought the OS would cover up their leaky code or any problems would get fixed by someone else during the code review or QA testing.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by acid andy on Sunday March 08 2020, @09:39PM (1 child)

    by acid andy (1683) on Sunday March 08 2020, @09:39PM (#968292) Homepage Journal

    the older ones who had years of experience were on the ball, they paid attention, the younger students ddin't really care about how to test for race conditions or memory leaks because either they didn't think it mattered or wasn't their problem or they thought the OS would cover up their leaky code or any problems would get fixed by someone else during the code review or QA testing.

    Is that really a generational difference though or is it just that the older ones made their mistakes years ago and learned from them? The ones that didn't probably gave up or were fired. Or do you mean you've been teaching for long enough to have seen both generations when they were young and inexperienced?

    --
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    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:59AM

      by anubi (2828) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:59AM (#968988) Journal

      Bingo!

      I saw nothing wrong with the "kids". They were good people.

      The main problem I saw was subordinating those of us who had experienced things gone wrong to those with brand new leadership training.

      Now, they will have the same experiences we got, as the executives who used the organization skills they are paid so highly for have to explain why these very expensive lessons had to be taught twice.

      --
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