NASA announced it will examine Boeing's workplace safety culture and the company's software development team in a preliminary report on the failed December test flight of the Starliner spacecraft designed to send humans into space, according to a preliminary report on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2020) NASA announced it will examine Boeing's workplace safety culture and the company's software development team in a preliminary report on the failed December test flight of the Starliner spacecraft designed to send humans into space, according to a preliminary report on Friday.
The report cited software glitches as top reasons the unscrewed Starliner barely survived a December 20 test flight by spending two days in low Earth orbit without reaching the International Space Station.
"The [investigation] team found the two critical software defects were not detected ahead of flight despite multiple safeguards," the report said.
The report added: "There were numerous instances where the Boeing software quality processes either should have or could have uncovered the defects. Due to these breakdowns found in design, code and test of the software, they will require systemic corrective actions."
NASA launched an inquiry to determine whether the software failure was "indicative of weak internal software processes," while also examining the overall workplace culture of Boeing's commercial crew team, the report said.
NASA's Commercial Crew Program chose Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft that would end US reliance on Russia's Soyuz program to travel to and from the International Space Station.
While SpaceX appears likely to receive NASA's approval to send humans to the International Space Station in the coming months, the report made mention of a timetable to correct deficiencies in the Boeing program.
Besides software failures, the NASA report also identified "intermittent issues" with the communication link between ground control and the Starliner.
Despite communication problems, the NASA-Boeing team managed to take corrective action that put the spacecraft into a low Earth orbit, but used up fuel needed to reach the International Space Station.
