Boeing : NASA's Delayed Deep-Space Rocket Suffers Test Failure on the Ground -- Update

By Andy Pasztor and Andrew Tangel

NASA and Boeing Co. suffered a potentially major setback in their deep-space ambitions when the engines for a giant new rocket shut down prematurely Saturday during a key test on the ground.

The engines were supposed to produce power for eight minutes but shut down after about 60 seconds while fastened to a stand at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Program officials had said four minutes would be the minimum time to gain confidence in the reliability of the engines, fuel system and surrounding structures.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said they couldn't immediately determine the cause of the premature shutdown, and therefore it was too early to determine what fixes would be necessary or even if the test needed to be repeated. They said engineers didn't know whether it was a hardware, software or sensor malfunction.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the mammoth Space Launch System booster, which is more powerful than the Saturn V that blasted Apollo astronauts toward the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was slated for its first uncrewed launch late this year, but that schedule is now in flux. Political and budget pressures on the program, projected to cost a total of between $19 billion and $23 billion to complete, were already increasing.

Departing NASA chief James Bridenstine repeatedly said in a news conference that the test shouldn't be considered a failure, because engineers and program managers gained important data. But he also said, "It's not everything we hoped it would be."

"Not everything went according to script," he said. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment.

The setback comes at a difficult time for SLS and Boeing. Industry and government officials expect the Biden administration to shelve President Trump's vision of landing astronauts on the moon as early as 2024. For many years, influential Senate Republicans have championed SLS -- and annually appropriated robust funding for it -- despite its troubled development. But with the Senate now controlled by Democrats, those supporters stand to lose significant clout.

Even before Saturday's failed test, former NASA officials and outside space experts said they expected that for early lunar missions SLS -- intended to become NASA's premier deep-space rocket -- might take a back seat to rockets under development by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., run by Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk, and Blue Origin Federation LLC, run by Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.

Months before the test, according to industry officials, leaders of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc., which manufactures the SLS rocket's RS-25 engines, expressed growing concerns the entire SLS program could be curtailed or significantly delayed. These officials said the company leaders were telling bipartisan supporters on Capitol Hill they worried NASA was considering such commercially developed alternatives to support the initial lunar missions. SLS has been under development for a decade, with individual launches expected to cost more than $1 billion apiece.

Other elements of lunar missions for astronauts currently on the books also are likely to change, according to industry officials. Awards to two rival teams to build lunar landers, previously anticipated in February or March, are likely to be delayed as the Biden team reassesses those projects. So far, Congress has allocated about one-quarter of the funds NASA previously requested to support producing and testing such landers by 2024.

In addition, according to one person briefed on the issue, barring a last-minute change in plans, the Biden transition team shortly is expected to name Steve Jurczyk, a veteran career NASA official, as acting NASA administrator, succeeding Mr. Bridenstine who previously announced his departure. Mr. Jurczyk now serves as associate administrator, the agency's highest-ranking civil servant.

Throughout most of his 33-year NASA career, Mr. Jurczyk has been associated most closely with robotic and scientific missions, areas new White House science advisers are likely to emphasize. Before Saturday's problematic test, Congress already moved to increase NASA's research budget for some earth-imaging and climate-change programs, a trend that industry and government officials expect will accelerate. NASA press officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Biden's transition team didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Congress originally called for the SLS rocket and a companion deep-space capsule, known as Orion, to take flight by the end of 2016. Later, NASA's target date for a 2018 uncrewed launch slipped to 2019, and then, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to the end of 2021.

A series of reports by government watchdogs have highlighted scheduling delays and safety issues, while noting that program managers burned through budget reserves and took testing shortcuts to make up time.

Backers of the SLS program have sought to maintain public support for it. With development slow and the first flight expected to lack the fanfare and publicity associated with carrying a crew, proponents had viewed Saturday's test as a way to generate momentum.

Boeing's space program has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years. In December 2019, software errors botched the launch of its Starliner space capsule, highlighting recent engineering lapses across the company, which also makes commercial jets and military aircraft.

The Starliner capsule is intended to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. The SLS rocket, on which Boeing is the prime contractor for the various stages as well as the flight control system, is a separate program. It is intended to carry astronauts to the moon and deeper into the solar system using the Orion capsule, a different spacecraft built by a team headed by Lockheed Martin Corp.

After the test, Mr. Bridenstine told reporters "I have absolutely total confidence in the team to figure out" what went wrong and "how to fix it and then get after it again."

Write to Andy Pasztor at [e-mail] and Andrew Tangel at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-17-21 1646ET