SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to launch its
Dragon crew capsule with NASA astronauts
this spring.
Mulholland, who serves as the Starliner
program manager, said the company is still
reviewing the Starliner’s 1 million lines of code
to make certain no other problems exist.
Because Boeing tested the Starliner’s
software in segments rather than in one
continuous stream to simulate the flight to
and from the space station, the company failed
to catch an error that knocked the capsule’s
internal timer off by 11 hours shortly after
liftoff. An unrelated communication problem
prevented flight controllers from quickly
sending commands in a bid to salvage the
docking portion of the mission.
Then, just hours before the capsule’s early
return to New Mexico, a second software
error was detected by ground controllers. This
mistake stemmed from the use of substitute
equipment during preflight testing rather than
actual flight hardware.
Mulholland stressed that the situation had
nothing to do with saving money.
“We’re going to go make it right and we’re
going to have a fantastic spacecraft going
forward,” he said.
The December mission was supposed to be the
company’s last major hurdle before launching
the first Starliner crew — two NASA astronauts
and a Boeing astronaut. NASA astronauts have
not launched from home soil since the space
shuttle program ended in 2011.