{"id":10060,"date":"2024-07-27T00:08:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/make-or-break-tests-on-tap-for-boeings-starliner-capsule\/"},"modified":"2024-07-27T00:08:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:08:18","slug":"make-or-break-tests-on-tap-for-boeings-starliner-capsule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/make-or-break-tests-on-tap-for-boeings-starliner-capsule\/","title":{"rendered":"Make-or-break tests on tap for Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Boeing\u2019s Starliner, docked at the International Space Station, pictured in a long-duration exposure as the craft soared 258 miles above western China. Image: NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Critical tests are on tap this weekend to confirm Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule can safety carry its two-person crew back to Earth despite unexpected helium leaks and degraded maneuvering thrusters, officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The problems, discovered during the ship\u2019s rendezvous with the International Space Station in early June, triggered weeks of testing and analysis that have extended the ship\u2019s first piloted test flight from a little more than one week to nearly two months.<\/p>\n

Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, said Starliner commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams, both veterans of earlier space station visits, have taken the extended mission in stride and are enjoying their bonus time in orbit.<\/p>\n

As for when they might be cleared to return to Earth, Stich told reporters \u201cwe don\u2019t have a major announcement today relative to a return date. We\u2019re making great progress, but we\u2019re just not quite ready to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two technical hurdles remain: tests this weekend to \u201chot fire\u201d 27 maneuvering thrusters in the Starliner\u2019s service module to make sure they will work as expected between undocking and re-entry; and parallel testing to confirm five known helium leaks in the propulsion pressurization system have not worsened.<\/p>\n

Pressurized helium is used to force propellants to the thrusters for ignition. The thrusters, in turn, are needed to re-orient the Starliner as required after undocking and to keep it steady when larger rockets fire to drop the ship out of orbit for re-entry and landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to fire all those thrusters through a number of pulses, just to make sure before we undock, that the whole system performs the way we expected and the way it did last time we checked it,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe\u2019ll also get a chance to look at the helium system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been six weeks since we last checked that helium system, that was on June 15. So we\u2019ll pressurize manifold by manifold, and then hot fire the thrusters, and then we\u2019ll get a chance to look at the helium leak rates and verify that the system is stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

All in all, \u201cit\u2019s a very important set of tests over the weekend that we\u2019ll do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Assuming no major surprises crop up, a NASA flight readiness review will be held to outline the problems for senior management, along with the \u201cflight rationale,\u201d that is, the analysis showing the problems are understood and pose no credible safety threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some significant education of the leadership heading into this agency flight readiness review,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe\u2019ve struggled to explain all of what\u2019s going on, and I apologize for that. This is a very, very complicated subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
NASA\u2019s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station\u2019s Harmony module and Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft. Image: NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Starliner was launched on its first piloted test flight June 5. During the subsequent rendezvous with the International Space Station, multiple helium leaks were detected \u2014 one was known before launch \u2014 and five aft-facing maneuvering thrusters failed to operate as the flight software expected.<\/p>\n

Four were later successfully test fired and one was declared failed.<\/p>\n

The aft-facing thrusters were exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods, causing them to operate at higher than normal temperatures. That, plus the rapid-fire sequence of burns during the rendezvous, likely contributed to the observed performance.<\/p>\n

To find out, Boeing took a flight thruster from another Starliner to a NASA test facility in White Sands, New Mexico, and ran it through two rendezvous sequences that replicated what the Starliner in orbit experienced along with five return-to-Earth, or \u201cdownhill,\u201d scenarios.<\/p>\n

Similar thrust degradation was seen and when engineers disassembled the test thruster, a Teflon seal was found to be slightly deformed, likely due to exposure to one of the propellants, nitrogen tetroxide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team is \u2026 looking at that thruster to see could that particular seal survive the rest of the flight,\u201d Stich said. \u201cIf you look at what we did on that thruster, it shows that we can survive up to five downhill legs. So we\u2019re making sure that that seal stays intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the helium leaks, Stich said flight controllers pressurized the system for earlier tests in orbit and the known leaks did not get any worse; all were within acceptable limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do a check this weekend on the helium leak scenario, and then right before undock, we\u2019ll re-pressurize the system and check the helium leaks. \u2026 We\u2019re making sure all that\u2019s covered.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Starliner took off, its batteries were rated for 45 days in space. Based on their actual performance in orbit, Stich said that limit has been extended to 90 days. Thursday marked the ship\u2019s 50th day in space and Stich said Wilmore and Williams possibly could return to Earth by late August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very confident we have a good vehicle to bring the crew back with,\u201d said Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s Starliner program manager. \u201cWe have to take the next steps to show that information to everybody else, and that leads up to the agency review, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do over the next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boeing\u2019s Starliner, docked at the International Space Station, pictured in a long-duration exposure as the craft soared 258 miles above western China. Image: NASA. Critical tests are on tap this weekend to confirm Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule can safety carry its two-person crew back to Earth despite unexpected helium leaks and degraded maneuvering thrusters, officials said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,1163,1305,190,1306,1166],"class_list":["post-10060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-butch-wilmore","tag-cst-100-crew-flight-test","tag-nasa","tag-starliner","tag-suni-williams"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}