Houston Chronicle by Christian Davenport June 20, 2019
Getting astronauts to the International Space Station was supposed to become routine, so much so that NASA was confident enough to hire a pair of contractors to provide a taxi-like service to low Earth orbit. That, in turn, would allow NASA to focus on the hard stuff-deep space exploration to the moon and Mars.
But four years after awarding the contracts, worth $6.8 billion combined to Boeing and SpaceX, the agency is still not able to fly astronauts, a capability it has not had since the space shuttle was retired in 2011.
A new report from a government watchdog paints a grim picture of the program, as both companies "continue to experience delays" in developing their spacecraft and are already two years behind schedule. The situation was made worse when SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft exploded during an engine test in April, sending a thick plume of smoke wafting over the Florida coastline.
The company has still not determined what caused the failure during a test of abort engines designed to carry the spacecraft away from the rocket in an emergency. The investigation is continuing, and the company had no update Thursday about the cause or what effect it would have on the company's schedule. But NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recently told reporters there is "no doubt the schedule will change" as a result of the failure.
Boeing has had problems as well. Last year, during a test of its abort system, it had a propellant leak after four of eight valves failed to close properly. The investigation and remediation efforts resulted in a one-year delay, according to the Government Accountability Office, which released the report Thursday. But the system has since been tested successfully, the company said.
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