{"id":10076,"date":"2024-06-29T17:23:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T09:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/starliner-landing-now-on-indefinite-hold-for-more-tests-but-nasa-insists-crew-not-stranded-in-space\/"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:23:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T09:23:46","slug":"starliner-landing-now-on-indefinite-hold-for-more-tests-but-nasa-insists-crew-not-stranded-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/starliner-landing-now-on-indefinite-hold-for-more-tests-but-nasa-insists-crew-not-stranded-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Starliner landing now on indefinite hold for more tests, but NASA insists crew not \u2018stranded\u2019 in space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
This view from a window on the cupola overlooks a portion of the International Space and shows the partially obscured Starliner spacecraft from Boeing docked to the Harmony module\u2019s forward port. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The return to Earth of Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule is on indefinite hold pending results of new thruster tests and ongoing analysis of helium leaks that cropped up during the ship\u2019s rendezvous with the International Space Station, NASA announced Friday.<\/p>\n

But agency officials insisted Starliner commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are not \u201cstranded\u201d in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a targeted (landing) date today,\u201d Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters during a teleconference. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to target a specific date until we get that testing completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo essentially, it\u2019s complete the testing, complete the fault tree, bring that analysis into (the mission management team) and then have an agency-level review. And then we\u2019ll lay out the rest of the plan from undock to landing. I think we\u2019re on a good path.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem for NASA and Boeing is that the Starliner\u2019s service module, which houses the helium lines, thrusters and other critical systems, is discarded before re-entry and burns up in the atmosphere. Engineers will not be able to study the hardware after the fact and as a result, they want to collect as much data as possible before Wilmore and Williams head home.<\/p>\n

But the crew\u2019s repeatedly extended stay at the space station has prompted some observers to say Wilmore and Williams are stranded in orbit, an impression that seems to have taken root in the absence of updates from NASA as the target landing date was repeatedly pushed back.<\/p>\n

Stich and Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s Starliner program manager, said that description is a mis-characterization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty painful to read the things that are out there\u201d Nappi said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten a really good test flight \u2026 and it\u2019s being viewed rather negatively. We\u2019re not stuck on ISS. The crew is not in any danger, and there\u2019s no increased risk when we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Stich: \u201cI want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space. Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have a little bit more work to do to get there for the final return, but they\u2019re safe on space station. Their spacecraft is working well, and they\u2019re enjoying their time on the space station.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Starliner was launched June 5 on the program\u2019s first piloted test flight with one already known helium leak. The other four developed during the ship\u2019s rendezvous with the space station when the jets were rapidly pulsed to fine tune the Starliner\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

While docked at the station, valves are closed to isolate the helium system, eliminating any additional leakage. But once Wilmore and Williams depart and head for home, the valves will be re-opened to repressurize the lines, or manifolds.<\/p>\n

Stich said even with the known leaks, the spacecraft will have 10 times the amount of helium it needs to get home. But engineers want to make sure the leaks won\u2019t get worse once the system is again pressurized.<\/p>\n

The five aft-facing thrusters in the Starliner\u2019s service module also failed to operate properly during approach to the space station on June 6.<\/p>\n

After docking, four of the five jets were successfully test fired and despite slightly lower power levels than expected, they are considered good to go for undocking and re-entry. The fifth thruster was not \u201chot fired\u201d because it\u2019s earlier performance indicated it had actually failed.<\/p>\n

But managers want to find out what caused the unexpected behavior in the other four. Starting next week, a new thruster identical to the ones aboard the Starliner will be test fired at a government facility at White Sands, N.M., exactly like the those in orbit were fired during the Starliner\u2019s rendezvous and docking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll recreate that profile,\u201d Stich said. \u201cThen we\u2019ll put a pretty aggressive profile in the thruster for (the undocking-to-re-entry) phase.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the glitches with the aft-facing thrusters were caused by higher-than-normal temperatures due to the Starliner\u2019s orientation with respect to the sun, or the sequence of rapid, repetitive firings commanded by the flight software. Or both.<\/p>\n

The ground tests, expected to last \u201ca couple of weeks,\u201d may provide evidence one way or the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a real opportunity to examine a thruster just like we\u2019ve had in space on the ground, a detailed inspection,\u201d Stich said. \u201cOnce that testing is done, then we\u2019ll look at the plan for landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the impression the crew is stranded in space, Stich and Nappi both pointed out that on Wednesday, a defunct Russian satellite in a slightly lower, more tilted orbit than the space station suffered a catastrophic \u201cevent\u201d that produced more than 100 pieces of trackable debris.<\/p>\n

While flight controllers evaluated the trajectories of the wreckage, the space station\u2019s nine-member crew was told to \u201cshelter in place\u201d aboard their respective spacecraft, ready to immediately depart and return to Earth in case of a damaging impact.<\/p>\n

Two Russian cosmonauts and NASA\u2019s Tracy Dyson boarded their Soyuz ferry ship while three NASA astronauts and another cosmonaut floated into their SpaceX Crew Dragon. Wilmore and Williams rode out safe haven inside the Starliner and were cleared to fly home if warranted.<\/p>\n

After about one hour, the crew was given the all clear to return to normal work. Had the Starliner had been considered unsafe, Wilmore and Williams likely would have been told to seek refuge in the Crew Dragon. But that was not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an approval to be a lifeboat in case of an emergency on ISS,\u201d Nappi said. \u201cThat means we can return with the Starliner at any time, and that was proven this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This view from a window on the cupola overlooks a portion of the International Space and shows the partially obscured Starliner spacecraft from Boeing docked to the Harmony module\u2019s forward port. Image: NASA The return to Earth of Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule is on indefinite hold pending results of new thruster tests and ongoing analysis of […]<\/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":[670,1163,822,717,190,1306,1166],"class_list":["post-10076","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-starliner","tag-suni-williams"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10076"}],"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=10076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}