Story so far: Veteran American astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry (Butch) Wilmore, are still docked with the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6 after facing delays, space debris threats, helium leaks and technical glitches on the Starliner spacecraft on which they travelled.

The U.S Space Agency — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) — held a ‘space-to-earth’ news conference with the two astronauts on July 10 to receive an update on their mission’s progress. Both astronauts said they ‘felt confident’ that they could return to Earth on Starliner itself.

Also read | How Boeing can bring NASA’s Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore back to Earth

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” said Ms. Williams, while Mr. Wilmore said, “That mantra you’ve heard, failure is not an option.” He added that both crew members were staying on the ISS to test the spacecraft

NASA along with the space capsule’s manufacturer Boeing is evaluating Starliner’s propulsion system and the five small helium leaks in the service module. The team is conducting ground tests on identical thrusters at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range while another investigation is underway at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to determine why the propulsion system’s seal failed, leading to helium leaks.

The continued delay in Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore’s safe return, which was initially scheduled to begin on June 18, has piqued concerns across the world, including India. Apart from Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore, NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, Jeanette Epps and Russian Cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko are aboard the ISS.

Here’s a look at the attempted launches, what went wrong, and current efforts for the crew’s safe return

Starliner’s attempted launches and success

Sunita Williams, 58, is the pilot of NASA’s Crew Flight Test mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner space capsule. The mission is a joint venture between NASA and American private space players to open up commercial travel to low-Earth orbits and the ISS to more people for scientific and commercial purposes.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin manufactured the Atlas V rocket which transported the astronauts via Boeing’s space capsule Starliner to the ISS. With this, NASA will have a second space capsule option (apart from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon), which has a crew module which can house up to seven astronauts and a non-reusable service module which houses the equipment and systems (air, temperature controls, water supply etc) needed for a stay in space.

The first crewed test flight of Starliner with the above-mentioned astronauts was scheduled for May 6 for a week-long stay at the ISS. However, the flight was scrapped less than two hours before the launch after an issue was detected in an oxygen relief valve of the rocket’s second stage. All launch activities were suspended and the flight was postponed to May 17.

A helium leak was detected in a thruster in Starliner’s service module, further postponing the launch to June 1. On that day, the ground launch sequencer, the computer which launches the rocket, triggered an automatic hold stopping the countdown clock three minutes fifty seconds before the launch.

On June 5, Starliner was finally launched successfully from NASA’s Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the two astronauts docked with the forward-facing port of the ISS. During their week long stay, the astronauts were tasked with verifying if Starliner was performing as intended by conducting tests on the various control systems and manoeuvring the thrusters. Prior to take-off, a small helium leak was noticed in the space capsule’s propulsion system but not deemed serious.

What went wrong?

En-route to the ISS, four more small helium leaks sprung up. Both NASA and Boeing officials reviewed flight data to find out the cause of the leaks. On June 6, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich admitted that similar thruster issues were revealed during the spacecraft’s uncrewed test flight in 2022, adding, “thought we had fixed that problem,” at a press conference.

The undocking and return journey of Starliner, which was scheduled for June 18, was postponed to June 22, then June 25 and later to July 2.

Mr. Stich opined that thruster issues may have been caused overheating when fuel was burned during the space capsule’s rendezvous with the ISS. According to CNN, the Starliner’s service module has 28 reaction control thrusters, of which five have failed during flight. Four were brought back online eventually.

The Starliner, which had its first uncrewed Orbital test flight in 2019, faced a software glitch, leaving the space capsule in the wrong orbit before it returned to ground without docking with the ISS. In 2022, the space capsule successfully conducted its first uncrewed test flight when it docked with the ISS and then undocked four days later to return to Earth. This flight too faced issues with the thrusters.

What is causing the delay?

Apart from technical issues, the crew also faced a debris collision threat on June 28. The US Space Command alerted the six astronauts onboard the ISS to execute ‘safe haven’ procedures i.e. crew members board the spacecraft they arrived in, in case an emergency departure is needed. This was necessitated after a defunct Russian satellite (RESURS-P1) broke into more than 100 pieces of debris in an orbit near the ISS. Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore were forced to board the Starliner to take shelter for an hour before they resumed their activities on the ISS.

On July 2, NASA said that the spacecraft was in good shape to remain docked to the ISS for over 45 days (its upper limit), giving the ground teams of NASA and Boeing time to conduct simulations and tests on the thrusters. Analysis is also underway to determine why several helium leaks have arisen in the capsule, said NASA. Currently, NASA has not set any end date to the mission, making the extension indefinite.

How will the crew return?

In the July 10 press conference, NASA has said, that if absolutely necessary, Starliner would be capable of returning to Earth – acting as an escape pod. Moreover, NASA also has the option of ferrying Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams to Earth aboard Crew Dragon. The SpaceX spaceship transported four astronauts to the ISS in March and is capable of fitting more people in case of an emergency. However, such an option has would be a last resort in case Starliner is deemed non-functional.

But NASA has reiterated its confidence in the Starliner to return the duo, dropping the option of using the Crew Dragon.

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation linked to two 737 MAX fatal crashes, a government official said on July 7.
| Photo Credit: Reuter

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation linked to two 737 MAX fatal crashes, a government official said on July 7.

The plea, which requires a federal judge’s approval, would brand the planemaker a convicted felon. Boeing will also pay a criminal fine of $243.6 million, a Justice Department official said.

The charge relates to two 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia over a five-month period in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people and prompted the families of the victims to demand that Boeing face prosecution.

A guilty plea potentially threatens the company’s ability to secure lucrative government contracts with the likes of the U.S. Defense Department and NASA, although it could seek waivers. Boeing became exposed to criminal prosecution after the Justice Department in May found the company violated a 2021 settlement involving the fatal crashes.

Still, the plea spares Boeing a contentious trial that could have exposed many of the company’s decisions leading up to the fatal MAX plane crashes to even greater public scrutiny. It would also make it easier for the company, which will have a new CEO later this year, to try to move forward as it seeks approval for its planned acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems.

Boeing declined to comment.

Boeing has also agreed to invest at least $455 million over the next three years to strengthen its safety and compliance programs, the official said. DOJ will appoint a third-party monitor to oversee the firm’s compliance. The monitor will have to publicly file with the court annual reports on the company’s progress.

The Justice Department on June 30 offered a plea agreement to Boeing and gave the company until the end of the week to take the deal or face a trial on a charge of conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration in connection with a key software feature tied to the fatal crashes.

After being briefed last week on the DOJ’s offer, a lawyer for some of the families criticized it as a “sweetheart deal”. They have vowed to oppose the deal in court.

The Justice Department’s push to charge Boeing has deepened an ongoing crisis engulfing Boeing since a separate January in-flight blowout exposed continuing safety and quality issues at the planemaker.

A panel blew off a new Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet during a Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines flight, just two days before the 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that had shielded the company from prosecution over the previous fatal crashes expired. The agreement only covers Boeing’s conduct before the fatal crashes and does not shield the planemaker from any other potential investigations or charges related to the January incident or other conduct.

Boeing is pleading guilty to making knowingly false representations to the Federal Aviation Administration about having expanded a key software feature used on the MAX to operate at low speeds. The new software saved Boeing money by requiring less intensive training for pilots.

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is a software feature designed to automatically push the airplane’s nose down in certain conditions. It was tied to the two crashes that led to the FAA’s grounding the plane for 20 months, an action that cost Boeing $20 billion, and the government lifted in November 2020.

As part of the deal, Boeing’s board of directors will meet with relatives of those killed in the MAX crashes, the official said.

The agreement does not shield any executives, the DOJ official said, though charges against individuals are seen as unlikely due to the statute of limitations.

The agreed penalty will be Boeing’s second fine of $243.6 million related to the fatal crashes — bringing the full fine to the maximum allowed. The company paid the fine previously as part of 2021’s $2.5 billion settlement. The $243.6 million fine represented the amount Boeing saved by not implementing full-flight simulator training.

Families of the victims of those crashes slammed the previous agreement and earlier this year pressed the Justice Department to seek as much as $25 billion from Boeing.

This year, the DOJ has held several meetings to hear from the victims’ families as they investigated Boeing’s breach of the 2021 deal.

Washington:

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said Monday it had reached a “definitive deal” to buy its subcontractor Spirit, which has faced scrutiny over production quality control in recent months.

“The merger is an all-stock transaction at an equity value of approximately $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share,” the company said in a statement.

Boeing disclosed in March that it was in talks to potentially reacquire Spirit, which it spun off in 2005 to lower costs.

“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” said Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun.

He said by reintegrating Spirit, “we can fully align our commercial production systems”, including safety and quality management systems, and “our workforce to the same priorities, incentives and outcomes — centered on safety and quality”.

Spirit AeroSystems builds fuselages and other significant parts for both Airbus and Boeing.

Boeing is by far Spirit’s biggest customer, with around 70 per cent of its revenue coming from the American plane maker in 2023.

The two companies have faced intense scrutiny since a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel blew off a 737 MAX mid-flight.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The US Justice Department is offering Boeing a plea deal that will allow it to avoid a trial related to two deadly 737 MAX crashes, a lawyer for the victims’ families said Sunday, expressing outrage.

Details of the deal, which requires Boeing to pay a fine and submit to an outside supervisor, were given to the families in a two-hour presentation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, said Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor who represents the families.

He said the families “will strenuously object” to the agreement if Boeing ultimately accepts and it is presented to a judge.

Contacted by AFP, Boeing declined to comment.

The New York Times reported over a week ago that prosecutors were eying such an alternative settlement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA, but the DOJ said it had not yet made a decision.

In May, the DOJ concluded that Boeing could be prosecuted for violating a previous DPA reached following the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which claimed 346 lives.

Under that three-year deal, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle fraud charges related to the certification of the 737 MAX.

But the aviation giant came under renewed scrutiny early this year after a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.

The January 5 incident brought Boeing’s manufacturing processes back into the spotlight, prompting regulator scrutiny and congressional investigations.

Meanwhile, the victims’ families have repeatedly urged federal prosecutors to bring Boeing to court versus reaching another settlement.

But prosecutors also faced pressure not to further damage Boeing, a company seen as critical to the US aviation industry as well as national security.

In his presentation on Sunday, the lead US prosecutor “admitted there is ‘a strong interest’ by the families to go to trial, but he repeatedly said that the DOJ couldn’t prove charges by a reasonable doubt,” Cassell said.

“Families argued over and over for a trial and to allow a jury to make that decision,” he said.

Boeing contested the DOJ’s conclusions in mid-June but has recognized the gravity of the safety crisis.

CEO Dave Calhoun, who has agreed to step down later in the year, told a recent congressional hearing that the company is “taking action and making progress.”

Ultimately, it will be up to the federal judge in Texas who is overseeing the case to decide if the new DPA goes through.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

Another whistleblower stepped forward Wednesday alleging he was retaliated against after flagging potentially dangerous manufacturing problems on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Richard Cuevas filed complaints with two US agencies alleging he was dismissed suddenly in March 2024 after raising concerns over manufacturing deviations in the forward pressure bulkhead, which is critical to managing pressure during flights, according to attorneys Katz Banks Kumin.

Cuevas is the latest whistleblower to come forward from Boeing’s operations, adding to scrutiny of the plane maker following a January inflight incident on a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines that required an emergency landing.

Cuevas worked as a contractor for Strom, who assigned him to Spirit AeroSystems, which builds fuselages for the Dreamliner.

In October 2023, Cuevas filed an ethics complaint with Boeing, alleging Spirit had made unauthorized changes to fastener hole dimensions in the forward pressure bulkhead on 787 aircraft without notifying Boeing.

“Our client witnessed critical issues with the forward pressure bulkhead assembly on multiple planes that deviated from Boeing’s specifications,” said a statement from Katz Banks Kumin.

“He recognized the substandard work and expressed concern about his safety concerns, but Spirit and Boeing failed to stop the faulty manufacturing processes. Mr. Cuevas was fired when his manager found out that an employee complained about these issues, and suspected that employee was Mr. Cuevas.”

The attorneys filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, saying in the latter submission that Cuevas believes that “based on his direct observations of glaring safety issues, that Boeing’s and Spirit’s statements to the public and investors about the safety of 787 Dreamliners are fraudulent.”

The attorneys also represent Sam Salehpour, a Boeing engineer who testified in April in the Senate about concerns over 787 manufacturing practices and that he was retaliated against for speaking.

Boeing said it is not involved in personnel decisions of subcontracts.

“A subcontractor’s employee previously reported concerns to us that we thoroughly investigated as we take seriously any safety-related matter. Engineering analysis determined that the issues raised did not present a safety concern and were addressed,” Boeing said. “We are reviewing the documents released today and will thoroughly investigate any new claim.”

Spirit “leadership is aware of the allegations and looking into the matter,” said company spokesperson Joe Buccino. “We encourage all Spirit employees with concerns to come forward, safe in knowing they will be protected.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Korean Air plane was forced to U-turn and make an emergency landing after dropping more than 25,000 feet due to a fault in the aircraft’s pressurization system. According to the Independent, flight KE189 departed Seoul’s Incheon International Airport (ICN) on June 22, 2024, at about 16:45 local time, headed for Taichung International Airport (RMQ) in Taiwan.

However, 50 minutes into its journey, the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane started descending sharply and fell about 26,900 feet in around 15 minutes. According to FL360aero, the message ”pressure system (pressure control function of the aircraft) abnormality” was displayed while the aircraft was flying over Jeju Island.

As a result, several passengers experienced hyperventilation and ear pain, prompting oxygen masks to be released inside the cabin of the plane. One passenger told The Taipei Times that children on the flight were crying when oxygen masks were deployed during the flight’s plunge.

 Another passenger said she felt something was amiss as the aircraft seemed to be hovering in the air and the flight attendants remained in their seats.

Upon landing in Taichung, Taiwan, 17 people were evaluated at medical facilities and were later discharged without severe injuries.

Korean Air apologised to ”all affected by this incident”, and said, ”We are fully cooperating with all relevant authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident. We have provided comprehensive support to affected passengers, including accommodation, meals, and transportation arrangements.’

The flight resumed on the morning of June 23 with a different aircraft, about 19 hours after the initial departure schedule. passengers, who arrived at Taichung International Airport, said they were frightened and that they would not take a flight for a while, Taipei Times reported.

A Korean Air spokesperson said the airline is conducting a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the pressurisation system malfunction, intending to address any maintenance issues before returning the aircraft to service.

Boeing, the plane that suffered a malfunction during the flight, has been under massive pressure following a string of incidents involving their planes. 

Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth from the International Space Station with its first crew of astronauts has been postponed, NASA said on Friday.

NASA did not provide a new date, raising questions about when the mission’s two astronauts will return as more testing and technical issues have created more delays.

The return to earth was previously scheduled for June 26.

The crew of U.S. astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, lifted off June 5 as a final demonstration to obtain routine flight certification from NASA.

The crewed test of the spacecraft, which has been test-flown to space twice since 2019 without humans aboard, has encountered five failures of its 28 maneuvering thrusters, five leaks of helium that are meant to pressurize those thrusters, and a slow-moving propellant valve that signaled unfixed issues from the past.

The issues and the additional tests NASA and Boeing have had to do call into question when exactly Starliner will be able to fly its crew home, and add to a list of broader problems Boeing faces with its Starliner program. The company has spent $1.5 billion in cost overruns on top of its $4.5 billion NASA development contract.

NASA wants Starliner to become the second US spacecraft capable of ferrying its astronauts to and from the ISS alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has been the agency’s primary ride since 2020. Boeing’s Starliner program has struggled with software glitches, design problems, and subcontractor disputes for years.

When Starliner arrived in the space station’s vicinity to dock on June 6, the five thruster failures prohibited the spacecraft from making a close approach until Boeing could implement a fix. The company rewrote software and tweaked some procedures to revive four of them and proceed with docking.

Starliner’s undocking and return to Earth represent the spacecraft’s most complicated phases of its test mission. NASA officials have said they want to better understand the cause of the thruster failures, valve issue, and helium leaks before Starliner embarks on its roughly six-hour return journey.

While just one thruster remains dead in Starliner’s current flight, Boeing encountered four thruster problems during the capsule’s uncrewed return from space in 2022.

According to flight rules established jointly by Boeing and NASA, Starliner’s maneuvering thrusters must, at a minimum, allow for “6-degrees of freedom of control,” and each has one backup thruster, a NASA spokesperson told Reuters.

That could mean at least 12 of the 28 thrusters – most of which are backups – are required for a safe flight, or potentially fewer, as long as the remaining thrusters have one backup and can work together in a way that doesn’t restrict Starliner’s freedom of movement in space.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. lawmakers pressed Boeing’s chief executive on June 18 about the company’s plans to fix its manufacturing problems and its willingness to heed whistleblowers’ warnings, while relatives of people who died in two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners were in the room to remind him of what was at stake.

CEO David Calhoun appeared before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Boeing critic. Blumenthal opened the hearing by recognizing the relatives of the crash victims and the family of a Boeing whistleblower who died by suicide earlier this year.

Also read: The controversy over Boeing’s bestselling 737 MAX and its impact in India | Data

“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” the senator said. “It’s about a company, a once iconic company, that somehow lost its way.”

Mr. Calhoun’s appearance before Congress was the first by a high-ranking Boeing official since a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it raised fresh concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.

Mr. Calhoun sat at the witness table and fidgeted with his eyeglasses as Blumenthal spoke. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., thanked the CEO for coming to face “tough questions.” Before giving his prepared opening statement, Calhoun stood and faced the people in the audience holding poster-sized photos of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

“I apologize for the grief that we have caused,” he said.

Hours before Mr. Calhoun arrived on Capitol Hill, the Senate panel released a 204-page report with new allegations from a whistleblower who said he worries that “nonconforming” parts — ones that could be defective or aren’t properly documented — are going into 737 Max jets.

Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at the 737 assembly plant near Seattle, claims Boeing hid evidence of the situation after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the company a year ago that it would inspect the plant.

“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered the majority of the (nonconfirming) parts that were being stored outside to be moved to another location,” Mohawk said, according to the report. “Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”

The parts were later moved back or lost, Mohawk said. They included rudders, wing flaps and tail fins — all crucial in controlling a plane.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company got the subcommittee report late Monday night and was reviewing the claims. “We continuously encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public,” the spokesperson said.

The FAA said it would “thoroughly investigate” claims raised in the Senate report.

The Senate subcommittee said that newly uncovered documents and whistleblower accounts “paint a troubling picture of a company that prioritizes speed of manufacturing and cutting costs over ensuring the quality and safety of aircraft.”

The 737 Max has a troubled history. The Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute Boeing for violating terms of a settlement it reached with the company over allegations it misled regulators who approved the plane. Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia. The FAA subsequently grounded the aircraft for more than a year and a half.

Mohawk told the Senate subcommittee that the number of unacceptable parts has exploded since production of the Max resumed following the crashes. He said the increase led supervisors to tell him and other workers to “cancel” records that indicated the parts were not suitable to be installed on planes.

The FAA briefly grounded some Max planes again after January’s mid-air blowout of a plug covering an emergency exit on the Alaska Airlines plane. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board opened separate investigations of Boeing that are continuing.

The company says it has gotten the message. Boeing says it has slowed production, encouraged employees to report safety concerns, stopped assembly lines for a day to let workers talk about safety, and appointed a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality review. Late last month, it delivered an improvement plan ordered by the FAA.

“From the beginning, we took responsibility and cooperated transparently with the NTSB and the FAA,” Calhoun said in remarks prepared for the hearing. He defended the company’s safety culture.

“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Mr. Calhoun said in the prepared remarks. “We are taking comprehensive action today to strengthen safety and quality.”

The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing goes on, however.

In the past week, the FAA said it was investigating how falsely documented titanium parts got into Boeing’s supply chain, and federal officials examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest Airlines 737 Max after an unusual mid-flight control issue.

Boeing disclosed that it hasn’t received a single order for a new Max — previously its best-selling plane — in two months.

Blumenthal first asked Mr. Calhoun to appear before the Senate subcommittee after a whistleblower, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing mistakes were raising safety risks on two of the biggest Boeing planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He said the company needed to explain why the public should be confident about Boeing’s work.

Boeing pushed back against the whistleblower’s claims, saying that extensive testing and inspections showed none of the problems that the engineer had predicted.

Mr. Calhoun announced in late March that he would retire at the end of the year. The head of the company’s commercial-airplanes unit resigned the day of Calhoun’s announcement.

Families of people who died in the Boeing Max crash in Ethiopia plan to attend Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill. They have pressed the Justice Department repeatedly to prosecute Boeing.

“We will not rest until we see justice.,” said Zipporah Kuria, whose father died in the crash. She said the U.S. government should “hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people.”

The Justice Department determined last month that Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that shielded the company from prosecution for fraud for allegedly misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max. A top department official said Boeing failed to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.

Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what to do next. Blumenthal said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing that he thinks the Justice Department should prosecute the company.

New York:

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will likely face tough questions Tuesday when a Senate panel grills the executive on safety problems, manufacturing missteps and alleged efforts to intimidate whistleblowers.

The hearing, an examination of “Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture,” follows an April session of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations featuring a Boeing engineer who testified that he was punished for raising safety questions about the top-selling 787 Dreamliner and 777.

“Five years ago, Boeing made a promise to overhaul its safety practices and culture. That promise proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said earlier this month.

“Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand.”

The whistleblower allegations surrounding the 787 and 777 are only one of the myriad issues facing Boeing that could come up on Tuesday.

The company is also implementing safety upgrades under the tight supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration after a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX blew out mid-flight in January, necessitating an emergency landing and leading to a brief grounding of some MAX planes.

The Department of Justice meanwhile concluded in May that Boeing could be prosecuted for violating a criminal settlement following two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, off Indonesia and in Ethiopia.

Next steps around a decision on whether to prosecute will come next month.

Calhoun has previously apologized for the Alaska Airlines incident and announced production halts and other steps to improve safety and quality assurance.

In Calhoun’s opening statement, released by Boeing ahead of the hearing, the CEO reiterated those points, emphasizing that the company has strict policies prohibiting retaliation against employees who report problems.

“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said. “We understand the gravity, and we are committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability, while elevating employee engagement.”

Whistleblower alleges safety issues 

At the April 17 hearing, witnesses painted a disturbing picture of a company that blew off safety questions and sidelined critics as it chased faster production and bigger profits.

The star witness was engineer Sam Salehpour who went public with allegations that, because of flawed manufacturing processes, the Dreamliner could suffer from premature fatigue, resulting in a potentially catastrophic accident because of excessively large gaps in the plane’s assembly.

Boeing has pointed to extensive testing that it says proves the 787 is safe.

Salehpour also testified that he was blackballed by company higher-ups and feared for his personal well-being after raising concerns about safety.

In connection with the probe, Blumenthal and Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, sent a letter to Calhoun seeking records that would shed light on Salehpour’s allegations about the 787 and 777, as well as records relating to Boeing’s whistleblower policies and protocols.

The same two senators also sent a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker related to the allegations, as well as other ongoing Boeing-related matters, such as a six-week FAA audit of the company following the Alaska Airlines incident.

Joining the hearing will be family members who lost relatives in the 2018 and 2019 MAX crashes, which together claimed 346 lives.

“I flew from England to Washington, DC, to hear in-person what the Boeing CEO has to say to the Senate and to the world about any safety improvements made at that corporation,” said Zipporah Kuria, who lost her father in the 2019 crash.

“I also continue to press the US government to hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people. We will not rest until we see justice.”

Calhoun, who will be accompanied at the hearing by Boeing Chief Engineer Howard McKenzie, apologized to the MAX families in his written remarks, saying “we are deeply sorry for your losses.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying two astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test (CFT), is launched on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. on June 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Boeing launched astronauts for the first time on June 5, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA.

A pair of NASA test pilots blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the International Space Station, the first to fly the new spacecraft.

The trip by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was expected to take 25 hours, with an arrival Thursday. They will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before climbing back into Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western U.S. on June 14.

“Let’s get going!” Wilmore called out a few minutes before liftoff.

Half an hour later, he and Williams were safely in orbit and giving chase to the space station. Back at Cape Canaveral, the relieved launch controllers stood and applauded. After all the trouble leading up to Wednesday’s launch, including two scrapped countdowns, everything went smoothly before and during liftoff, prompting congratulations from SpaceX’s Elon Musk and others.

“Today it all lined up,” said Boeing program manager Mark Nappi.

Years late because of spacecraft flaws, Starliner’s crew debut comes as the company struggles with unrelated safety issues on its airplane side.

Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and former space station residents — stressed repeatedly before the launch that they had full confidence in Boeing’s ability to get it right with this test flight. Crippled by bad software, Starliner’s initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA would let its astronauts strap in. The 2022 do-over went much better, but parachute problems later cropped up and flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule.

Wednesday’s launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, coming after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend. A small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system also caused delays, but remained extremely low and manageable.

“It’s just a tough endeavor to get to flight and huge kudos to the entire team for getting there,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.

Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX a decade ago to ferry NASA’s astronauts to and from the space station. The space agency wanted two competing U.S. companies for the job in the wake of the space shuttles’ retirement, paying $4.2 billion to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which refashioned the capsule it was using to deliver station supplies.

SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries — Russia, the U.S. and China — had mastered. It has taken nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston company that charters flights.

The liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the 100th of an Atlas V for rocket maker United Launch Alliance. It was the first ride for astronauts on an Atlas rocket since John Glenn’s Mercury era more than 60 years ago; the rocket usually launches satellites and other spacecraft.

Despite the Atlas V’s perfect record, the human presence cranked up the tension for the scores of NASA and Boeing employees gathered at Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston.

Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon are designed to be fully autonomous and reusable. Wilmore and Williams occasionally will take manual control of Starliner on their way to the space station, to check out its systems. The only snag early in the flight involved the capsule’s cooling system. More water was used than expected before the radiators took over in orbit. The tank will be refilled before the ride home.

If the mission goes well, NASA will alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for taxi flights, beginning next year. The backup pilot for this test flight, Mike Fincke, will strap in for Starliner’s next trip.

“This is exciting. We built up to this moment for years and years, and it finally happened,” Fincke said from neighboring Kennedy Space Center. “I feel like the whole planet was cheering for them.”