Starliner launches two Americans into orbit

[Otherbrother]

But more malfunctions just means more opportunities for the company to shine, the way that Boeing tells it:

“We accomplished a lot, and really more than expected,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, during a post-docking news conference. “We just had an outstanding day.”

Outstanding!

Meanwhile, remember when a lot of people were skeptical about them choosing to launch without fixing that helium leak first?

NASA and Boeing engineers, prior to launch, said the initial leak was likely due to a defective gasket and that changing a seal would fix it. Boeing opted not to do this because it would have delayed the launch for several weeks, and they worked to convince NASA it was a manageable issue.

Now, with four separate leaks, Nappi acknowledged that Boeing may not fully understand the root cause of the problem. "They’re very similar in the way that they’re behaving, so there’s a good reason to believe that they may be similar,” he said Thursday. The company has already begun investigating the issue with similar hardware on the ground.

After a drama-filled day, Boeing’s Starliner finally finds its way