{"id":10084,"date":"2024-06-18T23:41:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-moves-starliner-landing-to-june-26-to-collect-more-test-flight-data\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T23:41:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:41:29","slug":"nasa-moves-starliner-landing-to-june-26-to-collect-more-test-flight-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-moves-starliner-landing-to-june-26-to-collect-more-test-flight-data\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA moves Starliner landing to June 26 to collect more test flight data"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft photographed through the window of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule while both were docked to the International Space Station. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing\u2019s leak-prone Starliner capsule will remain docked to the International Space Station an additional four days, NASA announced Tuesday, returning to Earth with a pre-dawn landing at White Sands, New Mexico, on June 26 to close out an extended 20-day test flight, the first with astronauts aboard.<\/p>\n

The additional docked time will give Starliner commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams more time to help out aboard the station while flight controllers and engineers continue scrutinizing telemetry and finalizing plans for re-entry with five known helium leaks in the capsule\u2019s propulsion system and unexpected, presumably now-resolved issues with multiple maneuvering jets.<\/p>\n

One jet will not be used for the remainder of the flight, but the other suspect thrusters were successfully \u201chot fired\u201d during a test Saturday, giving managers confidence they will work as needed for post-undocking maneuvers and to drop the Starliner out of orbit for re-entry and landing.<\/p>\n

As for the helium leaks, engineers say the spacecraft has more than seven times the amount needed for the remainder of the flight. During the hot-fire test Saturday the leak rates were less than what telemetry indicated earlier in the mission, but engineers are still assessing data to better understand the behavior of the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned that our helium system is not performing as designed. Albeit manageable, it\u2019s still not working like we designed it,\u201d said Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s Starliner program manager. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got to go figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the thrusters, \u201cthere\u2019s some things about our flight profile and\/or our parameters \u2026 where our thrusters aren\u2019t performing (as expected). So we\u2019ve got to go figure that out.\u201d But he said Boeing intends to \u201cfully eliminate\u201d both issues, which he described as \u201cnuisances,\u201d before the Starliner flies again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about the situation,\u201d he said, \u201cis that we can stay up on ISS a little bit longer and get as much data as we possibly can so that we can fully understand this to the best of our ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program manager, said the Starliner can safely carry Wilmore and Williams back to Earth as is if some issue crops up that requires an immediate departure.<\/p>\n

But as it now stands, Wilmore and Williams will undock from the space station\u2019s forward port at 10:10 p.m. EDT on June 25 and fire the ship\u2019s aft-facing thrusters to drop out of orbit early the next day, setting up a parachute-and-airbag-assisted landing at White Sands, N.M., at 4:51 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

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Boeing and NASA teams participate in a mission dress rehearsal to prepare for the landing of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in White Sands, New Mexico, Sunday, June 16, 2024. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are Starliner\u2019s first human crew and travelled to the International Space Station as part of NASA\u2019s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The mission serves as an end-to-end demonstration of Boeing\u2019s crew transportation system as a provider for NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program. Image: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The day before Wilmore and Williams depart, ISS astronauts Tracy Dyson and Mike Barratt plan to venture outside the station for a spacewalk, or EVA, to retrieve a faulty radio transmitter and to collect swabs near vents and the station\u2019s airlock to find out if any microorganisms have managed to make it outside and survive in the harsh environment of space.<\/p>\n

During an initial attempt June 13, in what was to have been the first of three planned spacewalks, Dyson and Matthew Dominick, her original partner, never got out of the airlock. Dominick reported a spacesuit \u201cdiscomfort issue,\u201d and the EVA was called off.<\/p>\n

Rather than take the time to investigate and correct the problem with Dominick\u2019s suit, and given the amount of airlock oxygen available, NASA managers decided to re-try the original spacewalk with Dyson and Barratt and to combine tasks planned for the second and third outings in a single excursion on July 2.<\/p>\n

But the spacewalk schedule is dependent on the Starliner undocking, which is the top near-term priority.<\/p>\n

Already running four years behind schedule, the Starliner was launched June 5, a month later than planned due to problems with its Atlas 5 rocket, trouble with a countdown computer and because of an initial helium leak in the system used to pressurize the capsule\u2019s thrusters.<\/p>\n

NASA and Boeing managers decided the leak was too small to pose a safety threat and the ship was cleared for launch. Once in orbit and on the way to the space station, however, four more helium leaks developed and the Starliner\u2019s flight computer took seven maneuvering jets off line when the telemetry did not match pre-launch expectations.<\/p>\n

Stich said the hot-fire test Saturday showed the jets needed for post-undocking maneuvers and the critical de-orbit \u201cburn\u201d will work as needed to take the ship out of orbit for re-entry. Likewise, he said engineers were confident the helium leaks can be managed even if one or more gets worse after undocking.<\/p>\n

But the additional days docked with the space station will give engineers more time to review data and monitor telemetry from the Starliner\u2019s service module, which is where the thrusters and the helium pressurization plumbing are located. Engineers will not be able to study the actual hardware because the service module is discarded prior to re-entry and will burn up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking extra time given that this is a crewed vehicle, we want to make sure that we haven\u2019t left any stone unturned,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe also want to look at the systems and potential interaction between the systems and make sure we haven\u2019t missed something before we return.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the fact that the vehicle is staying a little longer. I like the fact that we\u2019re watching how the vehicle performs thermally, how the space station charges the batteries. We\u2019re getting to see those kinds of cycles, which we absolutely need for the subsequent missions. \u2026 So I think there\u2019s a silver lining in staying a little (longer at the space station).\u201d<\/p>\n

Before launch, NASA managers had hoped the Starliner test flight would pave the way toward certifying the spacecraft for operational space station crew rotation missions starting early next year. But given the problems encountered earlier in the flight, certification could be delayed depending on what is required to address the issues identified to date.<\/p>\n

\"\"
NASA\u2019s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a portrait 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft photographed through the window of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule while both were docked to the International Space Station. Image: NASA Boeing\u2019s leak-prone Starliner capsule will remain docked to the International Space Station an additional four days, NASA announced Tuesday, returning to Earth with a pre-dawn landing at White Sands, New Mexico, on […]<\/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-10084","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\/10084"}],"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=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}