The space shuttle Challenger STS-51L spaceflight ended in tragedy on Jan. (Public companies like SpaceX and Boeing have a responsibility to shareholders to ensure profitability, while NASA's government mission is - in part - to push forward advances in fields such as space and science to benefit different populations and sectors on Earth.) Three years later, however, McAlister said the companies' focuses and NASA's focus are aligned to make the program "safe, reliable and cost effective."Ĭommercial crew combines the companies' cultures and NASA cultures, McAlister added, to be effective for the program's needs. The company hopes to fly a second uncrewed test mission in March to address software issues that glitched a similar 2019 flight and caused NASA to issue 80 "corrective actions" to Boeing's work on Starliner.Ī 2018 report from Space News said Boeing and SpaceX initially struggled to meet NASA's stringent safety requirements for commercial crew. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is still working to meet key milestones to allow people on board. McAlister's division oversees the next generation of astronaut vehicles to the ISS that only just started flying people last year, in the case of SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Even though people come and go, that DNA is always there," said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight development. "All organizations have a culture, and it's almost like the DNA associated with an organization. In a thus increasingly crowded field for human exploration, NASA still remembers the lessons from Challenger - a vital part of the "DNA" of the organization, as one senior agency official told. (Russia, working with NASA, swiftly addressed the cause and resumed launching within weeks.) A fairly recent example, which turned out safely, was the two crewmembers (American and Russian) who experienced a 2018 abort aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Historically, other professional space agencies besides NASA have had their own spaceflyer deaths or incidents. Earlier this week, Axiom Space announced the first private crewed mission to the ISS, which will launch four people to orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2022. In the coming decade, it is anticipated that private companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will be among those carrying people into space on their own spacecraft, and facing their own questions about safety requirements for their astronauts (largely space tourists or private individuals). At the time, NASA repeatedly emphasized it was proceeding swiftly, but safely, in doing key tests to eventually bring astronauts to the moon. For example, NASA did a large shakeup in leadership in human exploration in 2019, citing cost and schedule concerns with the Artemis moon program, which aims to put astronauts on the moon in 2024 - a timeline that some members of the space community found to be overly ambitious. Conversations continue about safety to this day in all sectors of the space community. Safety concerns do still occur during human missions, which demand a high degree of care because they are so technically complex and carry huge risks. But Columbia eventually spurred the end of the space shuttle program, which ran 135 missions with 2 fatal flights over 30 years before retiring in 2011. The shuttle, after another investigation and more redesigns, returned to flight and astronauts were able to finish constructing the International Space Station (ISS). Another fatal incident in 2003, the Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts, renewed calls for NASA to focus on safety. Following each launch and test, boosters were thoroughly inspected and joint performance verified," he said.Ĭhallenger's demise prompted many books, documentaries and discussions, including a 2020 Netflix docuseries. "This was proven through rigorous development, validation testing and analysis, and has been demonstrated with the successful operation of over 200 boosters, including 86 successful space shuttle launches and over 40 successful static tests. Precourt leads the team manufacturing the rocket boosters for NASA's forthcoming Space Launch System, or SLS megarocket, using a design derived from the space shuttle's boosters that has been rigorously tested and flown in the decades since Challenger, Precourt said in an exclusive statement to. Numerous design changes to the rocket boosters (including a different joint design) allowed the space shuttle to continue safely flying the solid rocket boosters following Challenger, recalled Charlie Precourt, a former NASA astronaut and veteran of four space shuttle missions who today is vice president of Northrop Grumman Propulsion Systems.
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