After a successful launch a decade in the making, Boeing’s Starliner mission is trying to solve new problems on its way to the International Space Station, according to NASA.
Two additional helium leaks were detected in the vehicle, the space agency said in a post on X late Wednesday. A helium leak was discovered prior to launch and was deemed acceptable.
“Teams detected three helium leaks in the spacecraft. One of these had previously been discussed along with a management plan prior to flight.” shared NASA. “The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived in orbit. “Two of the affected helium valves have been closed and the spacecraft remains stable.”
A post about this was previously shared in a NASA publication.
As astronauts Butch Willmore and Suni Williams were about to call it quits for the night, mission control notified them that they needed to close two valves due to a new helium leak.
“It looks like we’ve detected a few more helium leaks,” mission control told the astronauts, as heard on the broadcast. Controllers then told the crew the plan to close the valves.
“We’re ready to know exactly what you mean by detecting another helium leak, so give it to us,” Wilmore told them.
“Butch, I’m sorry. We’re still trying to piece together the story,” mission control replied.
NASA and Boeing have since determined that the crew was safe and told them to sleep while they continued to look at the data. The crew was supposed to get nine hours of sleep, but troubleshooting efforts shaved an hour off their rest time.
“There are some issues that we have to monitor overnight with the helium leaks that were just raised, and we’ve got a lot of smart people here who will be looking at these things and keeping an eye on them,” Boeing aerospace engineer Brandon Burroughs said in the NASA release, “But the vehicle is safe right now.” somehow in a configuration where they can fly.”
Meanwhile, according to the dispatch from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, “the crew continues to move toward the (ISS) and is in a sleep period.”
It’s not yet clear what the impact of the leaks will be, but all indications are that Starliner is still scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on Thursday.
historical launch
Starliner’s highly anticipated journey lifted off atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. Wednesday. The historic launch marked the first time the spacecraft carried a crew into space.
The mission, known as the Crew Flight Test, is the result of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and expand U.S. options to transport astronauts to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The federal agency’s initiative aims to improve collaboration with private sector partners.
The flight marked only the sixth inaugural voyage of a manned spacecraft in U.S. history, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference in May.
“It all started with Mercury, then it started with Gemini, then Apollo, the space shuttle, then (SpaceX’s) Dragon and now Starliner,” Nelson said.
Williams also made history as the first woman to fly such a mission.
“This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Nelson said after the launch on Wednesday. “And I want to extend my personal congratulations to the entire team, who went through a lot of trials and tribulations. But they had perseverance, and that’s what we do at NASA. We won’t start until it’s right.”
Williams and Wilmore, who spent just over 24 hours getting to the space station, were expected to spend about eight days in the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board.
Weeks of troubleshooting
A series of problems led to the cancellation of previous crewed launch attempts on May 6 and June 1.
Two hours before the launch attempt on May 6, engineers detected a problem with the valve in the second stage, or upper part, of the Atlas V rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The entire stack, including the rocket and spacecraft, was retrieved from the launch pad for testing and repair.
The teams also studied a small helium leak in the spacecraft service module and a “design weakness” in the propulsion system.
After fixing the first helium leak in May, mission experts determined that it did not pose a threat to flight. During the launch countdown Wednesday morning, teams monitored the leak and reported no problems.
The Starliner was just 3 minutes and 50 seconds away from liftoff Saturday afternoon when an automatic abort was triggered by the ground launch sequencer or the computer launching the rocket.
United Launch Alliance technicians and engineers evaluated ground support equipment over the weekend by examining three large computers housed in a shelter at the base of the launch pad. Each computer is identical and provides triple redundancy to ensure safe launch of crewed missions.
Engineers have isolated the problem that stalled Saturday’s launch attempt in a single ground power supply inside one of the computers that powers the computer boards responsible for key countdown events, according to an update shared by NASA.
They removed the computer and replaced it with a spare part.
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