{"id":10069,"date":"2024-07-12T00:14:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T16:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/starliner-crew-confident-spacecraft-will-bring-them-safely-home\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T00:14:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T16:14:50","slug":"starliner-crew-confident-spacecraft-will-bring-them-safely-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/starliner-crew-confident-spacecraft-will-bring-them-safely-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Starliner crew confident spacecraft will bring them safely home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Boeing Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore spoke to reporters Wednesday and said they\u2019re confident the spacecraft will bring them safely back to Earth. In the meantime, Williams said, they\u2019re both enjoying their extended stay aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA TV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crew of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft said Wednesday they\u2019re confident the capsule will carry them safely back to Earth at the end of their extended stay aboard the International Space Station, despite helium leaks in the ship\u2019s propulsion system and trouble with maneuvering thrusters.<\/p>\n

Launched June 5, commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams originally expected to spend about eight days in space, putting the Starliner through its paces in the ship\u2019s first piloted test flight.<\/p>\n

But the helium leaks and thruster issues have prompted NASA to extend their stay aboard the space station indefinitely \u2014 Wednesday marked their 35th day in orbit \u2014 while engineers carry out tests and analysis to better understand what caused the problems and to make sure the spacecraft can safely being Wilmore and Williams home.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, NASA insists the crew isn\u2019t \u201cstranded\u201d in space, and both Wilmore and Williams, speaking with reporters for the first time in more than a month, appeared to agree with that assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think where we are right now, and what we know right now, and how the spacecraft flew as it was coming in to do the docking, I feel confident that if we had to, if there was a problem with the International Space Station, we can get in our spacecraft and we can undock, talk to our team, and figure out the best way to come home,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re learning now to optimize our specific situation and make sure that we know everything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his faith in the Starliner, Wilmore said \u201cwe\u2019re absolutely confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually doing thruster testing as we speak at White Sands, New Mexico, trying to replicate (the problems) we saw when we were rendezvousing,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we are going to learn from that. And we\u2019re going to incorporate new processes, new procedures that we will employ if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just to be on the safe side, Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, said the team has \u201cdusted off\u201d plans originally developed when the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the station developed a coolant leak.<\/p>\n

In that case, preliminary plans were drawn up to possibly bring Rubio down on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule if worse came to worse. As it turned out, the Russians launched a replacement Soyuz and those plans were not needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to use Dragon as a contingency return option for Frank \u2026 to use it as a lifeboat,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe had a configuration of Frank in the middeck of Dragon. I mean, certainly we\u2019ve dusted off a few of those things to look at relative to Starliner, just to be prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, our prime option is to return Butch on Suni on Starliner. \u2026 We\u2019re pretty far away from where we were with the Soyuz. We just want to understand the thrusters a little bit more before we commit to the final undock and return.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Williams said she and Wilmore were enjoying the extra time in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having a great time here on ISS,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know, Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like \u2026 coming back home. It feels good to float around. It feels good to be in space and work up here with the International Space Station team.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, it\u2019s great to be up here,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not complaining, Butch isn\u2019t complaining that we\u2019re here for a couple (of) extra weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams demonstrates the fun of weightlessness with zero-gravity flips at the end of a 20-minute news conference. Image: NASA TV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Running four years behind schedule, the Starliner was launched June 5, a month later than planned due to minor problems with the crew\u2019s Atlas 5 booster, trouble with a countdown computer and because of a small helium leak in the capsule\u2019s aft service module. Helium is used to pressurize the Starliner\u2019s propulsion system so jets can fire as needed.<\/p>\n

After extensive analysis, NASA and Boeing managers decided the leak was not a safety threat and the Starliner was cleared for launch as is.<\/p>\n

Once in orbit and on the way to the space station, however, four more helium leaks developed. In addition, the Starliner\u2019s flight computer took several aft-facing maneuvering jets off line when the telemetry did not match pre-set operating parameters.<\/p>\n

One thruster was deemed unusable going forward, but the others were successfully test fired later. That \u201chot-fire\u201d test gave engineers confidence the jets needed for post-undocking maneuvers, and to keep the Starliner steady during the critical de-orbit rocket firing, will work as needed to set the ship up for re-entry.<\/p>\n

The thrusters in question were facing the sun during long stretches of the Starliner\u2019s approach to the station and engineers suspect the problems experienced earlier were related high temperatures and the rapidity of firings during final approach. They are trying to duplicate those conditions in the ground testing.<\/p>\n

As for the helium leaks, the propulsion system isn\u2019t used while docked to the space station. The system was pressurized for the hot-fire test, but otherwise valves have been closed as always planned to isolate the helium tanks, eliminating additional leakage.<\/p>\n

The system will be repressurized for undocking to enable the maneuvers required to get home. But engineers have said there is 10 times more helium in the tanks than needed for the return trip, providing a comfortable margin even if any of the known leaks got worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI envision that we\u2019ll still do testing before we undock, actually first open the helium valves and then secondly once we undock to make sure everything is working correctly, as it\u2019s planned from what they found out during the thruster testing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo I have confidence, Butch has confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the hardware in question is located in the Starliner\u2019s service module, which is jettisoned just prior to atmospheric entry. As such, engineers will never be able to examine the equipment first hand. Williams said it only made sense to extend the mission to do as much testing as possible before coming home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just came home, we\u2019d lose the SM (service module) and then we wouldn\u2019t be able to go through all this testing and understand about our spacecraft,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Stich did not say when the crew might be cleared to undock. The next Crew Dragon crew rotation flight is scheduled for launch in mid August and \u201ca few days before that launch opportunity, we would need to get Butch and Suni home on Starliner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s kind of a back end,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really working to try to follow the data and see when\u2019s the earliest that we could we could target for undock and landing. I think some of the data suggests, optimistically maybe, it\u2019s by the end of July. But we\u2019ll just follow the data (and) figure out when the right undock opportunity is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boeing Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore spoke to reporters Wednesday and said they\u2019re confident the spacecraft will bring them safely back to Earth. In the meantime, Williams said, they\u2019re both enjoying their extended stay aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA TV The crew of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft said Wednesday they\u2019re confident […]<\/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":[670,1163,822,717,190,1166],"class_list":["post-10069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-butch-wilmore","tag-cst-100-starliner-crew-flight-test","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-suni-williams"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10069"}],"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=10069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}