Critical tests will be conducted and approved this weekend Boeing’s Starliner capsule can it be transported safely two-man crew The rover returned to Earth despite problems that arose early in the mission, officials said Thursday.
Unexpected helium leaks and broken maneuvering thrusters were discovered Ship’s rendezvous point The flight to the International Space Station in early June triggered weeks of testing and analysis and extended the craft’s first piloted test flight from just over a week to nearly two months.
NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore, and co-pilot… Sunita WilliamsThe two experienced aliens, both of whom have visited the space station before, accepted this extended mission without any problems and are enjoying their bonus time in orbit.
As for when they might be cleared to return to Earth, Stich told reporters, “We don’t have a big announcement today about a return date. We’re making great progress, but we’re not ready to do it yet.”
“A very important test set” for Starliner
There are two more technical hurdles: Tests will be conducted this weekend by “hot-firing” the 27 maneuvering thrusters in Starliner’s service module to make sure they work as expected between separation and reentry; and parallel tests will be conducted to confirm that five known helium leaks in the thrust pressurization system have not worsened.
Pressurized helium is used to force thrusters into the spacecraft for firing, while thrusters are needed to reorient the Starliner as needed after separation and to keep it stable when larger rockets fire to pull the craft out of orbit and for re-entry and landing.
“We’re going to fire all of these thrusters in a series of pulses, just to make sure that the whole system is performing as we expect and as it did when we last checked it before we leave,” Stich said. “We’ll also have a chance to look at the helium system.
“It’s been six weeks since we last checked the helium system, that was June 15. So we’ll pressurize manifold by manifold and then hot fire the thrusters and then we’ll get a chance to look at the helium leak rates and verify that the system is stable.”
“Overall, we have a very important series of tests to do over the weekend,” he said.
Barring any major surprises, NASA will conduct a readiness review of the flight, outlining the issues to senior management and providing a “flight justification,” an analysis that shows the issues are understood and do not pose a credible safety threat.
“There’s significant training in leadership that goes into this agency’s flight readiness review,” Stich said. “We had a hard time explaining everything that happened, and I apologize for that. This is a very, very complex issue.”
Starliner launched for its first piloted test flight on June 5. During the subsequent rendezvous with the International Space Station, multiple helium leaks were detected (one of which was known before launch) and the five rear-facing maneuvering thrusters did not function as the flight software expected.
Four were later test-fired successfully, while one was declared a failure.
The rear-facing thrusters were exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods, causing them to operate at higher temperatures than normal. This, plus the rapid burn sequence during rendezvous, likely contributed to the observed performance.
To find out, Boeing took the flight thruster from another Starliner to a NASA test facility in White Sands, New Mexico, and put it through five Earth-return, or “descent,” scenarios, along with two rendezvous sequences that mimicked what the Starliner in orbit experienced.
Similar loss of thrust was also seen, and when engineers disassembled the test thruster, the Teflon seal was found to be slightly deformed, likely the result of exposure to nitrogen tetroxide, one of the propellants.
“The team … looks at that thruster and wants to see if that particular seal can survive the rest of the flight,” Stich said. “If you look at what we’ve done on that thruster, it shows that we can survive up to five landing legs. So we’re making sure that seal stays intact.”
As for helium leaks, Stich said flight controllers pressurized the system for previous tests in orbit and that known leaks did not get worse, all were within acceptable limits.
“We’ll do a check on the helium leak scenario this weekend and then just before we separate the ship, we’ll re-pressurize the system and check for helium leaks. … We’re making sure we have everything covered.”
When Starliner took off, its batteries were rated for 45 days in space. Stich said that limit was extended to 90 days based on their actual performance in orbit. Thursday was the craft’s 50th day in space, and Stich said Wilmore and Williams could likely return to Earth by the end of August.
“I’m very confident that we have a good vehicle to bring the crew back,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager. “We need to take the next steps to show that information to everyone, and that goes all the way back to the agency review, and that’s what we’ll be doing next week.”
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