Reportedly NASA has added more safety fixes for Boeing's space capsule before it can fly astronauts following a pair of close calls during last year's test flight. In closing out the seven-month investigation, NASA officials said on tuesday they have now identified 80 corrective actions, mostly involving software and testing, that must be done before the Star liner capsule launches again. The previous count was 61.
“It's a bit of a wake-up call for nasa and its contractors” across the board, said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program. SpaceX meanwhile, successfully launched two nasa astronauts to the space station in May. They will return home next month aboard their Dragon capsule, splashing down off the florida coast.
Boeing had plenty of experience working on large nasa projects like the space shuttle and space station, and so nasa was “a little more used to the Boeing process," Stich said. NASA has since added more of its own staff to monitor software development at both Boeing and SpaceX. nasa is also borrowing SpaceX's “robust” approach to software, which involves going back to the designers following testing for feedback, said Kathy Lueders, NASA's new human spaceflight chief who until a month ago managed commercial crew. She wants to see more of that type of approach across other nasa programs.
