Starliner OFT mishap: Independent Review Team recommends 61 corrective actions, lists 49 testing gaps.
From my notes of yesterday’s NASA/Boeing teleconference:
The rocket and Starliner “emulators” (“You can’t bring the rocket into the test lab.”) did not emulate correctly. Software heads signed off on hardware changes without testing. If a program step had four possible outcomes, not all outcomes were tested.
Boeing culture changes are expected to be extended to SLS and 737 Max, etc. teams as well as Starliner. NASA will likely require changes to the way it approaches the lunar Human Landing System agreements, as well as Commercial Crew.
NASA and Boeing repeatedly refused to say whether another uncrewed Starliner Orbital Flight Test would be required (Boeing said it would pay for one, if required), or whether the next Starliner flight would occur this year, saying such a call could not be made for a few months yet. NASA said there are other ways to show docking competence, so an actual test docking is not always necessary— for example, the first Space Shuttle/ISS docking was, of course, crewed.
More:
NASA declares Starliner mishap a “high visibility close call”https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/nasa-declares-starliner-mishap-a-high-visibility-close-call/Boeing had 49 gaps in testing for its astronaut capsule before failed flight, independent review findshttps://www.orlandosentinel.com/space/os-bz-boeing-starliner-investigation-result-20200306-imofjq5ifvgipo54t742spvhu4-story.html =====
During
Friday’s SpaceX CRS-20 pre-launch briefing:
Hans Koenigsmann was asked about SpaceX testing, and he described “Hardware in the Loop Testing” (HITL) — “Basically, it’s a table full of all the components that are on Dragon, another table with of all the components that are on Falcon, and then there is a really elaborate computer that basically plugs into certain parts on the Falcon side and records certain parts on the output.” You simulate what an IMU or GPS measures, and record what the thrust vector control on the rocket does. “In this case, it’s relatively easy, it takes ten minutes, it runs in real time, so you can basically run this every ten minutes. And that’s what we do.”
Every time we make a software change, we run it through a shortened system of tests, and we run this HITL test. You have to be super careful to do this test right, looking for test gaps; for example, you could have the same error on both the computer-simulated IMU and in the actual data tables. So we do a test on the actual spacecraft, to be sure everything is connected properly. That’s how you fill all those test gaps. There are certain things, like calibration, that are reviewed using an elaborate system and signed off using a paper trail all the way down to the sensor information that we get from the vendor or we get from our own acceptance test.
Last but not least, there’s the unit test, where we test a function every time we compile that piece of software, which tells you this function still works the way it used to work. It allows you to test earlier, quicker, and better. That’s our approach to software. I can’t imagine a system that tests more or better. We test continuously, and in my opinion that is an excellent way of testing even complicated software.
From the same briefing:- SpaceX has the capability to manage multiple Dragon crew and/or cargo capsule missions at once. “In our vision, there’s going to be three, maybe four, at the same time.”
- Parachute testing has gone really well; two last “corner case” tests are planned soon.
- There should be at least three Crew Dragon flights to the ISS before the announced Axiom private-crew flight in late 2021.
FWIW: Wikipedia lists the next flight after DM-2 as USCV-1, Deliver ISS Expedition 64/65 crew (NASA astronauts Michael S. Hopkins and Victor Glover, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi), planned for July 2020. USCV-2 is penciled in for Starliner in December 2020, and USCV-3 with Dragon in May 2021.
The NASA rep said the Russian crew has been trained to help with emergency spacewalks and robotics support. Science items that require multiple crew is being delayed until Commercial Crew is up and running.