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Tomorrow, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, a Boeing-built spacecraft is set to blast off toward the International Space Station, carrying a human crew for the first time. The astronauts have been in preflight quarantine, getting some extra practice for the historic ride through flight simulations. The rocket stands tall on the launchpad, with the spacecraft, Starliner, perched on top. The weather forecast looks nearly perfect.

Joe Biden’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has claimed that the spate of recent Boeing incidents involving turbulence is due to “climate change.” Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Buttigieg predicted that turbulence is something that will continue to “affect American travelers, whether here or abroad.”

Boeing is set to launch its first crewed space mission in June without fixing a small helium gas leak on its troubled Starliner spaceship, officials said Friday. The vessel, under development since 2010, has been plagued by technical problems and has yet to fulfill its purpose of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, allowing Boeing's rival SpaceX to zoom ahead with its Crew Dragon capsule. Starliner was supposed to finally fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the orbital outpost on May 6, but the mission was scrubbed hours before lift-off after a faulty valve was discovered on...

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker says Boeing is in the beginning stage of fixing safety issues.. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday that Boeing has a "long road" ahead of it as the planemaker readies a plan aimed at assuring regulators it is adequately addressing safety concerns in its manufacturing. The FAA in February ordered Boeing to develop a comprehensive plan to correct quality-control issues after a door plug flew off a 737 MAX-9 mid-flight during an Alaska Airlines flight the month before. Boeing is slated to deliver that plan on May 30. ... FAA Administrator Mike...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has identified a fault in 292 U.S.-registered Boeing 777 aircraft, chiefly operated by United and American Airlines, that could cause their jet engines to discharge electrostatic energy into their fuel tanks and blow them up mid-air. The FAA proposed an ‘Airworthiness Directive’ in March, “prompted by a determination that the nitrogen enriched air distribution system (NEADS) cover plate assembly attached to a certain vent stringer in the center wing tank [of certain Boeing 777 aircraft] was installed without a designed electrical bond.” The air regulator explains that the “accumulation of electrostatic charge in the cover...

A severe and potentially catastrophic flaw has been identified in nearly 300 Boeing 777 jets operated by major airlines, including United and American Airlines. This flaw, rooted in an electrical issue, poses a risk of causing the aircraft’s wing fuel tanks to ignite and explode, a recent investigation by Daily Mail has disclosed.

Saturday target date for the highly anticipated crewed maiden voyage of Boeing’s Starliner is now off the table — and NASA has not immediately named a new one. “The team has been in meetings for two consecutive days, assessing flight rationale, system performance, and redundancy,” NASA said in a statement. “There is still forward work in these areas, and the next possible launch opportunity is still being discussed.” The update comes after several previous delays this month, and a week after Starliner mission teams reported a small helium leak in the service module of the spacecraft. They traced the leak...

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett’s suicide note has been released to the public for the first time, but social media users have discovered some major red flags. Moments before taking his own life with a gunshot to the head, Barnett reportedly scribbled his final thoughts into a notebook.

Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that protected it from criminal charges tied to the fatal 737 Max crashes, opening the company up to potential U.S. prosecution, the Department of Justice said Tuesday. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing in Texas they are still determining “how it will proceed in this matter” and that Boeing will have 30 days to respond. In January 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a conspiracy charge with the Justice Department. After a roughly two-year probe, the DOJ accused the company of concealing information about its Max plane that had been involved...

Boeing's Starliner flight to the International Space Station was delayed again due to a helium leak. NASA, Boeing and the United Launch Alliance said in a statemen Tuesday that the launch date will now come no earlier than Tuesday at 4:43 p.m. EDT. "Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft's service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster. Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic," they said. Boeing's statement said that it is working with NASA...

The US Justice Department may prosecute Boeing for violating a 2021 safety agreement... A massive Ukrainian attack on the port of Sevastopol in Crimea... An Israeli warplane shooting down two drones approaching Israel from the east... Alternative for Germany politician Bjorn Hocke fined 13,000 euros (14,062.10 US dollars) for using the phrase... An Israeli civilian killed in a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on northern Israel... In the nation of Georgia next to Russia final passage of the 'foreign agents bill' by Parliament... Eight dead and 38 injured in a collision in Marion County, Florida... Two French prison officers killed, three...

Tonight in Paris two police officers shot and seriously wounded inside a police station... The Russian military in Syria says that Russian military police blocked a convoy of the US-led military coalition... Pro-Palestinian demonstrations going on in Spain without violent incidents or police crackdowns... "There are few soldiers there. Observers, engineers" Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk discussing NATO's presence in Ukraine... Thousands gathered for a Pro-Palestinian protest in Malmo, Sweden... The mainstream media reporting on the Israel-Gaza situation noting Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and a buildup of ground forces around it...And there are signs of...

A Boeing whistleblower recently claimed he was chided for slowing production when he found defects in airplane parts. The former quality inspector, identified as Santiago Paredes, who previously worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, told the BBC that plane bodies were regularly shipped out of the factory with serious issues, the outlet reported Wednesday. Paredes claimed he used to find nearly 200 defects in the parts, and he tried to slow production to deal with the problems. He also alleged that leadership put him under pressure to not be so meticulous. “They always made a fuss about why I was...

Panicked passengers were forced to flee the burning wreckage of a Boeing 737 when it skidded off the runway in Senegal early Thursday, video showed. Eleven people were injured – four of them severely – when the Air Senegal flight headed from Bamako, Mali, crashed mid-lift off from Dakar’s Blaise Diagne airport shortly after 1 a.m. local time, the BBC reported. One of the 78 passengers was seen scrambling away from the Boeing 737-300 aircraft as it went up in flames, one clip from the scene showed. The plane – which Air Senegal chartered from the Senegalese carrier Transair –...

Boeing cargo plane forced to land at Istanbul without front landing gear Incident involving Boeing 767 jet operated by FedEx comes amid intense scrutiny of troubled planemaker Jasper Jolly and agencies Wed 8 May 2024 08.22 EDT Share A Boeing cargo plane has been forced to land at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear, in the latest setback for the embattled planemaker. Nobody was hurt in the incident, in a flight operated by the delivery company FedEx, according to Turkey’s transport ministry. The Boeing 767 aircraft, flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday, informed the traffic control...

Boeing 767 FedEx plane makes emergency landing without nose gear in Turkey Front landing gear of a Boeing 767 cargo plane landing in Istanbul malfunctioned. As a result the plane nosedived into the runway without any casualty

I don't know if this will qualify as "the other shoe dropping" in Boeing's ongoing problems, but the news certainly doesn't sound great. The Federal Aviation Administration announced yesterday that they were opening an investigation into the company after Boeing reported that workers at its South Carolina production plant had falsified inspection records on some of its new 787 Dreamliner planes. The Dreamliner has already fallen behind its original production schedule and this sort of investigation isn't likely to help them catch up. Also, the inspection records in question sound rather important, so people will probably need to go back...

Elon Musk is chiding Boeing on social media for employing "too many" non-technical managers amid a wave of ongoing layoffs at his own company, Tesla. Musk fired off his thoughts on X this week, responding to reporting on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which is set to make a launch attempt on Monday evening after years of delays and setbacks. In 2014, NASA granted Boeing $4.2 billion and Musk's SpaceX $2.6 billion to develop a commercial crew system that could transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Despite working with a little more than half of the money that Boeing received, SpaceX...

United Launch Alliance’s countdown is underway in preparation for liftoff of an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Friday at 6:36 a.m. EST (1136 GMT) with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on an unpiloted Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station.

The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spaceship was dramatically called off just two hours before launch after a new safety issue was identified, officials said Monday, pushing back a high-stakes test mission to the International Space Station. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were strapped into their seats preparing for liftoff when the call for a "scrub" came, because engineers noticed audible buzzing from a liquid oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket meant to propel the capsule into orbit. In a late night press conference, Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) that built...