NASA Contractor Warns That Boeing Launch Must Be Stopped "Before Something Catastrophic Happens"
Shut It Down
A NASA contractor is urging the space agency to suspend the upcoming Boeing Starliner launch over major safety concerns with the aerospace company's wares.
In a press release, the president of ValveTech, a NASA contractor that supplies the agency with parts, warned that the buzzing sound heard during the now-scrubbed Starliner launch could indicate something seriously wrong with the transport capsule.
"As a valued NASA partner and as valve experts, we strongly urge them not to attempt a second launch due to the risk of a disaster occurring on the launchpad," ValveTech president Erin Faville cautioned. "According to media reports, a buzzing sound indicating the leaking valve was noticed by someone walking by the Starliner minutes before launch. This sound could indicate that the valve has passed its lifecycle."
After the incident, which occurred just before Starliner was supposed to attempt its first crewed launch earlier in May, NASA has said that it won't try again until at least May 17. According to Faville, much needs to be be done between now and then to head off the worst possible outcomes.
"NASA needs to re-double safety checks and re-examine safety protocols," he said, "to make sure the Starliner is safe before something catastrophic happens to the astronauts and to the people on the ground."
Bad News Boeing
The CEO of United Launch Alliance, which is launching the craft into orbit, pushed back strongly on X-formerly-Twitter.
"Not sure what to say about this one," he wrote. "Close to none of it is correct: Not urgent. Not leaking. Etc. Remarkable that the particular person quoted doesn't seem to know how this type of valve works."
ValveTech's warnings come not just after the scrubbed Starliner launch, but also after months of terrible press for Boeing that have included parts falling off its planes, government investigations, and two dead whistleblowers.
As the company's press release notes, the launch scrub also occurred after a November 2023 ruling in which a federal court found that Boeing had used a valve from another aerospace company, Aerojet Rocketdyne, that copied ValveTech's designs. The part was not, according to a witness in that trial, equipped for the job it was meant to do, and as far as the company can tell, it hasn't been replaced.
"ValveTech continues to question how NASA, Boeing and Aerojet could have qualified this valve for the mission without proper supporting data or previous history or legacy information, which in its experience, goes against aerospace-industry qualification protocols established by NASA," the press release reads.
All told, these are some pretty serious claims, and Futurism has reached out to NASA to ask if the parts in question have been replaced.
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