Boeing to launch space rocket today despite warnings of potentially 'catastrophic' mission

Boeing will continue with their Starliner launch today , despite a NASA contractors warning that the mission could potentially be 'catastrophic.' The Boeing capsule is slated to take two astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Starliner is due to take off attached to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida . Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, two former Navy pilots with a combined 500 days in space over two missions to the ISS, have been selected for the space launch.

However, a faulty valve is leaking helium in the control jet and this could make the flight fraught with danger, according to a NASA contractor. This component helps the craft adjust while in orbit. This has prompted Erin Faville, who is the president of ValveTech, to ask NASA "re-double safety checks and re-examine safety protocols to make sure the Starliner is safe before something catastrophic happens," reports Elite News.

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Speaking to The Daily Mail, Faville said that NASA and Boeing's optimism was potentially unfounded. "I warned,’ Faville warned. "I will choose to let it play out."

On May 8, Faville warned that the mission could be fraught with danger. "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."

Previous attempts to launch Starliner have been wrecked due to hardware issues, such as a leaking valve on one of its oxygen tanks. On May 6, a leaky valve was found on the liquid oxygen tank of the Atlas V rocket, delaying its launch. Faville warned that the leak could have caused an explosion on the launchpad.

The leaking valve is described as being no larger than a shirt button. It has been compared to a rubber washer found around the opening of a sink faucet in a kitchen. in total, there are 28 reaction control system thrusters, which help the crew steer the orbital vehicle through space. NASA and Boeing expressed their confidence that 27 of these thrusters work perfectly, without leaks or other issues.

In a press conference last Friday, NASA’s associate administrator, Jim Free, outlined his confidence ahead of the planned launch. "It’s our collective job to ensure we can fly this test flight safely and successfully," Free said. "We’re never moving too quick that we are compromising safety."

The leak referenced by Faville does not concern Free. "I would say that the ascent timeframe is not going to put a lot of stress on this particular seal," he said.

"I would say the reason we’re confident [includes] two different aspects of confidence in flying with the leak. "One, we characterized the leak through various pressure cycles and the leak is relatively stable, " before adding that "a couple of bounding analyses" and tests strengthened their conviction that the leak will not cause issues. Along with the ULA and NASA, Free said that Boeing had spent the last couple of weeks testing their Starliner.

In her statement, Faville said that such an incident could have been fatal to both "astronauts and to the people on the ground." Faville said that her intention with the statement wasn't to stop Boeing's space program but to introduce a more rigorous safety protocol.

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"It is unfortunate that some of my comments were taken out of context to imply otherwise," she said. Since 2011, Boeing has been testing its CST-100 Starliner, but the process has been beset by failures.

One such incident was an onboard clock failure that stopped a Boeing craft from docking at the ISS in December 2019, during its first-ever unmanned voyage to the space station.

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Last summer, the Starliner was supposed to launch with two astronauts, but issues with the parachute and wiring systems stopped the mission. The craft is designed to fly autonomously, however, the pilots can also assume control.

Once Wilmore and Williams reach the ISS they are expected to spend a week with the crew on board the international research facility, which includes four US astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts. After their trip to space, the experienced pilots will re-enter Earth via a parachute and airbag-assisted landing somewhere in a desert in the southwest of The United States. This will represent the first time a NASA crew has used an airbag system.

The launch will also represent the first time an Atlas rocket has been used to launch a crew into space since the 1960s. Astronauts such as John Glenn was transported into space by Atlas rockets on NASA's Mercury program.

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