NASA: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft full of software bugs

Washington: A NASA probe into Boeing’s commercial space capsule called Starliner, that failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) in December, has revealed numerous software bugs that should have been found in internal testing and not during an unmanned space flight.

Investigators found “fundamental” problems with the company’s software that could have led to a disastrous outcome more grievous than previously known, the US space agency said on Friday.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is likely to be ready to carry humans to the International Space Station (ISS) later in 2020, along with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched on December 20, but was unable to dock with the International Space Station as planned because it ended up in the wrong orbit,” reports Space.com.

According to NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a newly disclosed timer error on the December 20 flight had the potential to lead to “catastrophic” failure.

The timer error on Starliner was discovered by ground controllers during the flight and corrected while the spacecraft was still aloft.

“While this anomaly was corrected in flight, if it had gone uncorrected, it would have led to erroneous thruster firings and uncontrolled motion during (service module) separation for deorbit, with the potential for a catastrophic spacecraft failure,” NASA officials were quoted as saying. (IANS)

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