That was the title of a rather grim movie made in the late 1960’s as Hollywood tried to cash in on America’s race to land a man on the Moon. It paid attention to detail and got good reviews but seemed ponderous in a way that the movie Apollo 13** was not. Even a space nerd kid like me did not want to watch it again.

But it seems that NASA, and more especially Boeing, are facing a similar situation right now, with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft seemingly stuck at the ISS with continuous faults cropping up that have delayed its return multiple times. This is the spacecraft’s maiden flight with astronauts on board, following more than a decade of development problems that put it years behind schedule and over-budget.

Even after the spacecraft shipped to Florida the problems have continued, then on the way to the ISS, and now while it’s docked. Look at the list:

  • May 21: Launch scrubbed when a helium leak was found on a thruster.
  • June 6: Following a successful launch four thrusters failed in orbit, resulting in a one-hour delay in docking with the ISS. The two astronauts were set to stay on ISS for about a week.
  • June 11: NASA reveals that four more helium leaks have happened.
  • June 12: Starliner’s return flight was delayed until June 18 due to a scheduled spacewalk.
  • June 14: Return flight delayed to June 22 while the thruster issues are studied more.
  • June 18: Return flight delayed to June 26….while the thruster issues are studied more.

I left out the May 6 and June 1 launch scrubs because each time it was due to a problem on the Atlas V rocket, which is nothing to do with Boeing.

But aside from some black humour about this thing being cursed it has to be pointed out that the spacecraft may never amount to much. Even assuming it gets back with the crew rather than being undocked empty and de-orbited to burn up, it will be months before another flight is attempted while all these issues are resolved. There was supposed to be only one test flight but it’s hard to see the next one not being yet another test, with just two crew onboard rather than the full compliment of seven.

And of course if the ship is abandoned the crew will have to return on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which would be humiliating for Boeing, though better than two dead astronauts.

The ISS is also likely to be de-commisioned in 2030 so Boeing is running out of time for operational flights to make money, although they’re never even going to break-even, with losses of $1.4 billion so far on their fixed-price contract.

** In an interview done in the mid-1990’s, Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell, revealed that she and Jim had watched Marooned when it came out and it had given her nightmares, which was the story that was turned into her nightmare sequence in the Apollo 13 movie.