3 days. 2 astronauts. 1 mission.

In June of 2024, NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams launched to the International Space Station aboard a Boeing CST-100 Starliner that ended up sustaining issues with the propulsion system.

These system failures would turn their planned 8-daylong test mission into 9 months of solitude. While news of this extended stay made headlines, and most people were focused on what was happening in orbit, the pressure on the ground was just as real as it was up to the collaborative efforts of several companies to try and get the marooned astronauts home as quickly as possible.

In order to get these people back to earth, a major industrial gas supplier, deeply involved in supporting aerospace fueling operations, needed three sets of eight highly precise nitrogen coils to be fabricated on an extremely expedited basis.

This is where Metal Works Corporation came into play. Metal Works received a call one Friday afternoon stating that these coil sets had to be completed by Monday morning. For most, this would be a daunting task, but for Metal Works, this was just another Friday. This meant long days, sleepless nights and no breaks until the job was done. Performing ultra-precise work like this takes highly skilled craftsmen, as there is no time for errors or delays. Thankfully, Metal Works possesses a great team of skilled individuals who take pride in their craft and are willing to go above and beyond to meet the demands of customers.

Because of the critical nature of these components, this wasn’t simply a matter of rushing the job; it was about staying disciplined under pressure and doing things right. Since these coils were tied to critical fueling systems, the quality of the finished product was non-negotiable. The tolerances on this job were so tight (+/-.010" on the diameter) that they were mostly unheard of in the pipe bending/coiling industry. The coils had to fit into an existing system without issue. No rework. No delays. Everything had to line up perfectly.

Not much pre-planning can be done on a job like this. When the turnaround window is shrinking by the hour, decisions need to be made on the fly as the job progresses and cannot be debated over.

So, Metal Works got to work.

The shop floor didn’t slow down. Crews pushed late into the night, and in some cases, into the early morning, to keep things moving.

The job wrapped up on schedule, and the components were ready when needed. While the broader mission involved many moving parts, the groundwork, quite literally, was in place.

For Metal Works, it’s the kind of project that doesn’t always get attention but says a lot about what matters in this industry. When timelines shrink and expectations rise, execution is everything.

Sometimes that means long nights. Sometimes it means solving problems on the fly. And sometimes, it means helping support a mission that’s a little bigger than the shop floor.

For more information, visit pipebends.com.