Two NASA astronauts will not return from the International Space Station (ISS) for another four days, the latest in a series of delays that have bedeviled the Starliner program for years.
NASA and Boeing have pushed back the Starliner spacecraft’s disconnect for the second time, now targeting June 26 for the Crew Flight Test mission to return from the ISS. “We want to give our teams a little more time to look at the data, do some analysis and make sure they’re really ready to come home,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said at a news conference. Tuesday.
Boeing Starliner capsule launched June 5 atop United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The the spacecraft had a cube-shaped docking to the orbital space station, which has been marred by a number of technical problems.
Five of the spacecraft’s thrusters failed during its approach, and four were subsequently restored. “The meeting was a little more demanding on the powertrain,” Stich said. “In other words, he fired the jets a little more often and fired them a little more in succession, which caused a little extra heating.”
The Starliner was also developed five helium escapes, one of which was identified prior to its launch. Engineering teams now believe the leaks may be related to jet activity. Stich assured reporters that in the past nine days since the Starliner landed on the ISS, the number of leaks had decreased.
Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to burn without being flammable or toxic. “We need about seven hours of helium and have about 70 hours to spare to get to the deorbit burn,” he said. Easy math tells us it’s 10%.
While it’s parked outside the ISS, Starliner teams on the ground run tests on the vehicle and collect data before giving it the go-ahead to carry astronauts back to Earth. “We want to understand how the thrusters will perform during the deorbit burn,” Stich said.
Technicians are also evaluating the oxidizer RCS isolation valve in the service module that is not closing properly. The RCS, or Reaction Control System, uses the nozzles to control position and steering, while the oxidizer isolation valve regulates the flow of oxidizer necessary to burn the fuel in the nozzles.
Despite all these issues, Stich said the Starliner teams “feel really comfortable now about coming back.”
The Crewed Flight Test is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and is designed to transport crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under a $4.3 billion contract with the space agency. NASA’s other commercial partner, SpaceX, has sent eight crews to the space station so far, while the Boeing Starliner has suffered several delays and technical hiccups along the way.
Boeing launched two unmanned flights to the ISS, which also suffered from a number of glitches. This is the first time a vehicle has carried a crew into orbit. “This is a test flight and we’re going to learn some things,” Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew program, said at a news conference. “So here we are, we’ve found that our helium system isn’t working as designed, even though it can be managed, it’s still not working the way we designed it, so we have to find out.
NASA’s Stich reiterated that the Starliner teams also learned that the vehicle’s service module was a “very complicated module.” “We did a series of tests [on the ground]…and now we are working to learn about this vehicle in a different way,” he added. “Maybe we could have done other tests at the site to pre-characterize it.”
Both NASA and Boeing officials have confirmed that the Starliner spacecraft is safe for astronauts to return as of today, but the teams have decided to keep it attached to the ISS where they can conduct further tests on the vehicle in orbit. Starliner can remain attached to the ISS for a maximum of 45 days during its current mission.
The Starliner’s trip home is expected to take about six hours, and the spacecraft will land in the Utah desert.
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