26.11.2020
©Boeing
Two days before SpaceX launched its first operational mission with four astronauts onboard, Suni Williams, who is training to be the commander of Boeing's second crewed mission, wished her colleagues well with just a tinge of longing.
“It’s just gonna be awesome to see them get to the International Space Station and be up there working for the next six months. I’m specifically looking forward to seeing them live up there because our crew, my crew is gonna be the complementary crew on the Boeing Starliner.”
Williams has at least another year to wait until it’s her turn.
NASA estimates Boeing won't be ready for a second attempt of an uncrewed test flight until the first quarter of 2021, with the start of operational crewed flights possibly late next year.
Boeing and SpaceX had been neck-in-neck developing and testing the companies' respective spacecraft for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, since being chosen by NASA in 2014 to build spacecraft capable of bringing humans to the ISS.
But software problems caused Boeing's Starliner to miss docking with the space station during its first orbital flight test in December 2019.
Meanwhile SpaceX has knocked out its uncrewed orbital flight test, crewed flight test and now the first operational flight of four astronauts. The crew successfully docked with the International Space Station about 27 hours later.
In a move that signals Boeing's need to strengthen its technical team, the company hired former SpaceX software lead Jinnah Hosein earlier this month. Hosein comes to the table with experience that could be especially helpful with Starliner.
At SpaceX, Hosein led the software development for Falcon, Falcon Heavy, Dragon and and Crew Dragon. Hosein, now VP of Software Engineering at Boeing, will focus on software across the entire company.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation and aerospace analyst at Teal Group, thinks this hire is an important step to get Boeing back on track.
"There's just been a de-prioritization of technical and engineering skills and indeed a disempowerment of the technical people they have, so it was welcome news," Aboulafia told FLORIDA TODAY.