Boeing at end of space station battery supply chain

Last Thursday I reported that the same contractor that supplies lithium ion batteries implicated in fires on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger plane -- GS Yuasa of Kyoto -- had also been tapped by NASA to supply batteries for the International Space Station.

It turns out that the supply chain for the space station is as complex as the 787 – with Boeing at the end. GS Yuasa supplies batteries for the space station to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which in turn is a subcontractor to Boeing, prime contractor for the space station.

I just sent a query asking Boeing if it plans to conduct any additional tests on the lithium ion batteries slated to power the space station starting in 2017. Josh Byerly, a NASA spokesman, told me the agency plans to monitor the ongoing 787 battery investigation.