Boeing’s leak-prone Starliner capsule will remain docked with the International Space Station for another four days and will return to White Sands, New Mexico, on June 26 to complete its extended flight period of June 20-20, NASA announced Tuesday. It will return to Earth with a pre-dawn landing in . daily test flight – the first flight with astronauts on board.
Additional docking time will be given to Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams More time to assist on station as flight controllers continue to review telemetry and finalize reentry plans due to five known helium leaks in the capsule’s propulsion system and unexpected behavior in multiple maneuvering jets.
A jet will not be used for the remainder of the flight, but other suspected thrusters successfully “fired” during a test Saturday, giving executives confidence that they would work as needed to lift the Starliner from orbit for reentry and landing. .
As for helium leaks, engineers say the spacecraft had more than 10 times the amount needed for the remainder of the flight. Leak rates during Saturday’s hot-fire testing were less than telemetry showed earlier in the mission, but engineers are still evaluating the data to better understand the system’s behavior.
“We have learned that our helium system is not performing as designed. Although it is manageable, it is still not performing as designed,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager. “So we need to figure this out.”
As for the thrusters, “there are some things in our flight profile and/or parameters… where our thrusters are not performing (as expected). So we need to figure that out.” But he said Boeing plans to “completely eliminate” both problems, which he described as “annoyances” before the Starliner flies again.
“The good thing about the situation is that we can stay on the ISS a little longer and get as much data as possible so we can fully understand this to the best of our ability.”
Meanwhile, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said Starliner could safely transport Wilmore and Williams back to Earth as is if a problem arose that required immediate departure.
But as it stands now, Wilmore and Williams will depart the space station’s forward port at 10:10 p.m. EDT on June 25, firing the ship’s aft thrusters to deorbit early the next day and deploy a parachute. – Airbag assisted landing at White Sands at 04:51 EDT.
The day before Wilmore and Williams departed, ISS astronauts Tracy Dyson and Mike Barratt returned to the station for a spacewalk, or EVA, to retrieve a faulty radio transmitter and collect samples near the station’s vents and the station’s airlock to find out if any microorganisms were present. He plans to go out. They managed to get out and survive in the harsh environment of space.
During the first attempt on June 13, the first of three planned spacewalks, Dyson and his primary partner, Matthew Dominick, never made it out of the airlock. Dominick reported a spacesuit “discomfort problem” and the EVA was aborted.
NASA managers decided to investigate and fix the problem in Dominick’s suit and, given the amount of airlock oxygen available, instead of taking the time to retry the original spacewalk with Dyson and Barratt and combine the missions planned for the second and third trips. decided. A single trip on July 2nd.
But the spacewalk program depends on docking with Starliner, which is a top priority in the near term.
Starliner, which is already four years behind schedule, Launched on June 5A month later than planned due to problems with the Atlas 5 rocket, a problem with the countdown computer, and an initial helium leak in the system used to pressurize the capsule’s thrusters.
NASA and Boeing managers decided that the leak was too minor to pose a safety threat, and the ship was cleared for launch. But once in orbit and on the way to the space station, Four more helium leaks revealed and Starliner’s flight computer disabled seven maneuvering jets when telemetry did not meet pre-launch expectations.
Stich said Saturday’s hot-fire test showed the jets required for post-docking maneuvers and that the critical deorbit “burn” would work as needed to lift the ship out of orbit for reentry. Similarly, he said engineers are confident that helium leaks can be managed even if they worsen after one or more of them become disconnected.
But additional days docked with the space station will give engineers more time to review data and monitor telemetry from the Starliner service module, where the thrusters and helium pressurization installation are located. Engineers will not be able to examine the actual hardware because the service module will be jettisoned before reentry and burn up in the atmosphere.
“Given that this is a crewed vehicle we are taking the extra time, we want to make sure we leave no stone unturned,” Stich said. “We also want to look at the systems and potential interactions between systems and make sure we haven’t missed anything before we go back.”
“I like the car to last a little longer,” he added. “I like that we’re watching how the vehicle is performing thermally, how the space station is charging the batteries. We’re starting to see those kinds of cycles that we definitely need for subsequent missions. … So I think there’s something good about staying a little bit (on the space station longer).”
Before the launch, NASA managers hoped the Starliner test flight would pave the way for the spacecraft to be certified for operational space station crew rotation missions starting early next year. However, given the problems encountered earlier in the flight, certification may be delayed depending on what is required to resolve the problems identified to date.
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