NASA astronaut Sunita Williams return - Boeing employees ‘embarrassed, humiliated’ after Boeing Starliner failure
Indian origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams will return to Earth after another 6 months in SapceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft after Boeing’s Starliner fails to do so. As per a report by New York Post, Boeing employees are ‘humiliated’ because they have to take help from rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the rescue of the astronauts due to the technical glitches with the Starliner space capsule.
Initially planned for just 8 days, this mission has been delayed by 8 months now due to faulty thrusters of Boeing’s spacecraft. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed that Starliner’s propulsion system, plagued by thruster malfunctions and helium leaks, posed a great a risk for a crewed return of the spacecraft. Notably, The Boeing spacecraft suffered a helium leak just before liftoff, with the leaks getting worse when the ship docked at the ISS.
As per the report, Boeing has been facing backlash for quite some time now due to several commercial flight incidents.
One Boeing worker, who asked to stay anonymous, told The Post, “We have had so many embarrassments lately, we’re under a microscope. This just made it, like, 100 times worse. We hate SpaceX. We talk s–t about them all the time, and now they’re bailing us out.”
He further added, “It’s shameful. I’m embarrassed, I’m horrified.” He said that the morale of the company has gone “in the toilet” and many are even blaming NASA for the humiliation. Notably, Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has stated that he spoke to Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, about the situation, who assured that Boeing would continue working on resolving the issues once Starliner is safely back on Earth. This mission has hurt Boeing’s reputation in a big way. It is now a challenge for Ortberg to restore its reputation, who was appointed as the Boeing CEO last month.
