NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has raised concerns over quality control and standards at plane maker Boeing and its efforts to help the space agency return astronauts to the Moon.
According to NASA’s report, a “critical component” of this upgrade is Boeing’s development of the SLS’s new upper stage, the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), which will aid in sending the Orion on its mission.
Once it is complete, EUS will give the SLS a 40 percent upgrade in carrying capability, going from 27 metric tons under Block 1—the SLS rocket’s first iteration—to 38 metric tons with Block 1B, according to the report.
However, progress on the SLS, which has been under development since 2014, has been plagued with issues, including Boeing’s “ineffective quality management and inexperienced workforce,” along with continued cost increases and schedule delays, the report said.
As part of its report, NASA’s OIG interviewed officials at NASA Headquarters, Marshall Space Flight Center, Boeing, and DCMA between August 2023 through May 2024.
It also visited the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, to observe the SLS core stage and EUS production.
The report pointed to 71 “Corrective Action Requests”(CARs) issued by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) at Michoud between 2021 and 2023 to address “deficiencies in quality.”
NASA’s OIG said this is a “high number of CARs for a space flight system at this stage in development and reflects a recurring and degraded state of product quality control.”
‘Foreign Object Debris’ Found in Fuel Tank
The report highlights other issues, including “foreign object debris ” identified inside the SLS Core Stage 2 liquid hydrogen fuel tank.The debris included “metal shavings, Teflon, and other debris on and underneath the entry platform and ladder assembly on the forward dome panels inside of the tank.”
“Foreign object debris can damage hardware and potentially injure flight crew when entrapped within crewed flight articles,” the report stated.
The liquid hydrogen fuel tank was subsequently cleaned, reinspected, and found to meet standards, according to the report.
In another incident during its visit to Michoud in April 2023, the OIG said it observed substandard welding on a liquid oxygen fuel tank dome, a critical component of the SLS Core Stage 3.
The report said that on another occasion, Boeing officials “incorrectly approved hardware processing under unacceptable environmental conditions.”
“Quality control issues at Michoud are largely due to the lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing,” the report said.
To mitigate such challenges, Boeing provides training and work orders to its employees, the report noted.
However, the OIG said it found these efforts to be “inadequate” considering the “significant quality control deficiencies at Michoud.”
Rising Costs
Boeing’s EUS contract has soared from the initially agreed-upon cost of $962 million in 2017 to over $2 billion through 2025, and the company’s delivery of the EUS to NASA has been postponed six years from an initial February 2021 date established in 2016 to April 2027, the report stated.“Given Boeing’s quality management and its related workforce challenges, we are concerned these factors could potentially impact the safety of the SLS and Orion spacecraft including its crew and cargo,” it concluded.
The OIG report included a number of recommendations, including that Boeing work with the Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD), among others, to develop a quality management system training program compliant with international standards.
The report said that NASA officials would review the program.
It also recommended financial penalties for Boeing’s “noncompliance with quality control standards,” although NASA ultimately decided not to fine the planemaker, according to the report.
