Boeing Co. ’s initial test flight of its Starliner space capsule without astronauts on board was stranded in the wrong orbit, scuttling a plan to dock with the international space station and dealing a high-profile setback to U.S. space-exploration ambitions.
Roughly half an hour after a flawless predawn launch Friday of the specially instrumented CST-100 vehicle from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, an automation or software problem forced engineers to abruptly cancel the long-awaited rendezvous in orbit, scheduled for Saturday. The demonstration mission was intended to chart the course for routine hops eventually carrying National Aeronautics and Space Administration crews to and from the international space station.
Friday’s mistake—particularly embarrassing because it stemmed from a fundamental error setting the capsule’s internal clock—rattled those NASA plans and raised new questions about Boeing management’s ability to implement major programs while avoiding such relatively simple technical missteps.
There weren’t any hardware issues with the capsule or the Atlas V rocket, powered by Russian-made engines, that lofted it into its initial orbit, according to preliminary indications from NASA and Boeing. The Starliner capsule separated from the booster precisely as planned after roughly 15 minutes, and it was supposed to coast for roughly the same amount of time. NASA didn’t indicate any problems during that period.
That prompted a premature congratulatory message from Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg, who lauded program officials before NASA gave out public information about the improper orbit. In a message on Twitter, he praised the Boeing team and United Launch Alliance, the joint venture with Lockheed Martin Corp. that builds and operates the Atlas V rocket, for the “historic Starliner uncrewed launch.”
The Starliner began firing its maneuvering thrusters at the wrong time after separating from the launcher, according to NASA, and ended up using too much fuel. Controllers were then unable to re-establish communication with the craft in time to keep the capsule on track to dock with the space station as planned. The communication gap, which could have lasted some seven minutes, according to NASA officials, may have occurred because during that phase of the flight, the capsule was out of range of NASA’s communications satellites.
By the time flight controllers were able to send commands again to the Starliner, according to NASA, it already had used up roughly a quarter of its total fuel supply, and officials opted to prepare it for a return to earth at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as early as Sunday. It had been scheduled to return to that location in nine days, after spending more than a week docked with the space station.
An hour after launch, NASA cut off its video feed after indicating the capsule was in a stable orbit and had electrical power, but failing to elaborate further. Flight controllers were “assessing all their options” and “contemplating the next maneuvers for the spacecraft,” the agency said, around two hours before disclosing the propulsion malfunction.
Later in the morning, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine at a news conference stressed that any astronauts on board would have been safe.
Despite the disappointment, Mr. Bridenstine told reporters “a lot of things did, in fact, go right” during the launch, adding that the rest of the mission will be used to vet the safety of various essential systems, including life-support features and heat shields.
Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing’s space and launch businesses, told reporters “we don’t understand the root cause” of the timing discrepancy.
Friday’s incident and scramble to explain it illustrated the downside of excessive reliance on automation in the Starliner fleet. NASA engineers and managers over the years have repeatedly emphasized the risks of overreliance on automated systems, without giving human crews ways to take control in emergencies. Indeed, Mr. Bridenstine asserted that if there had been a crew on board, they could have commanded the capsule to adjust firing of its thrusters, and “we very well may [have been] docking with the international space station tomorrow.”
Nicole Mann, one of two NASA astronauts slated to fly the first crewed mission on the Boeing spacecraft, reiterated the importance of maintaining manual-control alternatives. “We have the capability on board to stop the automation and take over manually to fly,” she told reporters.
Before Friday’s events. Boeing had signaled it hoped to fly the first crew to the space station by summer. Now, Messrs. Bridenstine and Chilton said that timetable is under review. The NASA chief said it was premature to comment on whether another demonstration flight without astronauts would be required.
For Boeing, the botched mission came amid struggles to deal with the crisis over its 737 MAX jetliner, which remains grounded after lapses in designing automation flight-control systems resulted in two fatal crashes that took 346 lives in less than five months. Before Friday’s launch, some inside and outside Boeing had described it as a chance to demonstrate the Chicago aerospace company’s technical prowess and ability to deliver on pledges to NASA.
Mr. Muilenburg, who was in Florida on launch day, ran the company’s defense and space business until 2013. He has been vocal about the company’s ambitious plans for the sector, telling associates over the years that civil space initiatives had long-term strategic and public-relations significance beyond anticipated financial returns. The Boeing CEO has said the first astronaut to land on Mars would travel on a Boeing-made rocket. “I think this is the most exciting time in our country’s space program in decades,” he said in a speech last year. “We’re working on things now that are bigger than the Apollo program.”
Rival Space Exploration Technologies Corp., run by entrepreneur Elon Musk, previously completed a similar uncrewed test flight to the orbiting laboratory. But over the months, both companies have suffered ground explosions that delayed schedules for starting routine transport of astronauts in craft that have been called first-generation commercial space taxis.
Previous plans called for both companies to start those flights carrying crews in 2020, more than three years later than initially expected. It isn’t clear whether the Starliner’s problems will affect SpaceX’s schedule.
The Starliner capsule was carrying hundreds of pounds of cargo and a mannequin dubbed Rosie the Riveter.
The Boeing capsule has been plagued by budget and engineering challenges, including problems with its emergency escape and landing systems. Congressional investigators and NASA’s own inspector general have repeatedly questioned the agency’s timelines for launches with astronauts. They also have warned about unresolved safety questions, and urged the U.S. to ensure access to Russian rockets and capsules until Boeing and SpaceX, as Mr. Musk’s company is commonly called, are ready to take over crew transportation to the space station.
NASA retired its Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, with the eventual goal of replacing those reusable winged craft with commercially operated, reusable vehicles, reminiscent of 1960s-era capsules that took astronauts into orbit. NASA is now negotiating with Kremlin officials to purchase a pair of seats on Russian missions as backstops to the agency’s delayed commercial crew program.
Boeing’s system is on track to be more expensive than the roughly $81 million NASA pays for each Russian seat. But NASA and White House officials have stressed the importance of launching astronauts on domestically built hardware from U.S. soil. NASA has committed more than $6 billion overall to accomplish that goal.
Even as NASA faces many months of additional work to certify Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule for routine missions, Congress is moving to lock in U.S. funding for the space station until 2028. The Trump administration wants the funding to last only until 2024.
Boeing and SpaceX also are competing for NASA business to send astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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