US transport to space station is delayed again

Technical challenges encountered by SpaceX and Boeing will delay until late 2018 the first flight of commercial spacecraft to carry crew to the International Space Station (ISS), according to a 1 September report from NASA’s inspector general. That’s about a year beyond the previous target launch date set by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Boeing’s current problems relate to potentially damaging vibrations generated during launch and the ballooning mass of the vehicle, the report said. Meanwhile, SpaceX is having difficulties ensuring that the crew capsule won’t flood in a water landing; the company’s original design was for a capsule that would touch down on land.

Earlier delays from the original 2015 target for the first crewed flight were caused primarily by funding shortfalls, the audit report said. But for the first time in the Commercial Crew Program’s six-year history, NASA was given the full amount it requested—$1.2 billion—in fiscal year 2016.

The report was issued before the 1 September test-firing explosion that destroyed a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its communications satellite payload.

NASA has contracted with the Russian agency Roscosmos to ferry US astronauts to the ISS for another year through 2018. The cost for flying the six Americans who are expected to travel to the station in 2018 is $490 million, the report stated. That would bring to $3.4 billion the total paid to the Russians since 2006 for transporting 64 astronauts. It’s equal to the cost of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program from its 2010 inauguration through May of this year.

Since September 2014, Boeing and SpaceX have been working under fixed-price contracts, valued at a combined $6.8 billion, to complete the development and flight qualification process for their respective crew transport systems. Before its system can be certified, each contractor must complete two test flights, one uncrewed and the other with two test pilots. Each is also to include at least two, and as many as six, crewed flights to the ISS. As of 31 May, Boeing had been paid $1.1 billion and SpaceX $499 million.

Before the 1 September accident, SpaceX had completed 28 successful launches of its Falcon 9 rocket, including eight cargo resupply trips to the ISS, with only one failure. Boeing has had 64 successful launches of its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, including one to send an Orbital ATK cargo transport to the ISS.

The inspector general found significant delays in NASA’s process for approving safety and hazard reports that the contractors submit. That tardiness could increase the risk that costly redesign work may be required late in development, which would further delay the program. Although NASA’s goal is to approve the reports within eight weeks, the contractors told auditors that the review process can take as long as six months. NASA management partially concurred with the inspector general’s recommendations for improving the handling of the reports.