{"id":10089,"date":"2024-06-08T20:47:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T12:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/starliner-crew-welcomed-aboard-space-station\/"},"modified":"2024-06-08T20:47:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T12:47:23","slug":"starliner-crew-welcomed-aboard-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/starliner-crew-welcomed-aboard-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Starliner crew welcomed aboard space station"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_66437\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66437\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66437\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607_Starliner_CFT_crew_arrival.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607_Starliner_CFT_crew_arrival.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607_Starliner_CFT_crew_arrival-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607_Starliner_CFT_crew_arrival-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607_Starliner_CFT_crew_arrival-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-66437\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Space station commander Oleg Kononenko, flanked on his left by Starliner commander Butch Wilmore and on his right by co-pilot Sunita Williams, anchors a group photo of the lab\u2019s seven long-duration crew members and their two visitors. Back row, left to right: cosmonaut Nikolai Chub, Jeanette Epps and Matthew Dominick; middle row, left to right: cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, Tracy Dyson and Michael Barratt. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Working around multiple helium leaks and thruster problems, the crew of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft wrapped up a challenging rendezvous and a delayed-but-successful docking with the International Space Station Thursday in a major milestone for the new ship\u2019s first piloted test flight.<\/p>\n<p>With commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams monitoring the Starliner\u2019s automated approach, the Starliner\u2019s docking mechanism engaged its counterpart on the front of the station\u2019s forward Harmony module at 1:34 p.m. EDT as the two spacecraft were sailing 260 miles above the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>A few moments later, the Boeing ferry ship was pulled in for a \u201chard\u201d mating, ensuring an airtight structural seal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was an OK, three-wire, fly Navy docking complete!\u201d mission control radioed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK indeed,\u201d replied Wilmore, a veteran astronaut and former Navy test pilot. \u201cNice to be attached to the big city in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After extensive checks to verify an airtight seal, hatches were opened and Wilmore and Williams floated into the lab complex to an enthusiastic welcome from the seven Expedition 71 crew members: cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nicolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin, along with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy Dyson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not sure we could have gotten a better welcome,\u201d Wilmore said, smiling broadly. \u201cWe had music, we had dancing, it was great! What a wonderful place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Said Williams: \u201cI just want to say a big thanks to family and friends who\u2019ve lived this for a long time,\u201d she said amid laughter. And I think you\u2019re glad we\u2019re not with you anymore! \u2026 We\u2019re just happy as can be to be up in space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j_cloqobD0I?si=J4N_fdDxQmr743eU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Wilmore and Williams plan to spend about a week aboard the outpost before returning to Earth aboard the Starliner. While they\u2019re there, the station crew will install a replacement urine processor pump module that was loaded aboard the Starliner at the last minute to fix the lab\u2019s water recycling system and allow normal use of the toilet in the U.S. segment of the station.<\/p>\n<p>Running years behind schedule after multiple problems that cost Boeing some $1.4 billion to correct, the Starliner was launched Wednesday with a known helium leak in the system used to pressurize the spacecraft\u2019s propulsion system. Launch had been delayed a month, in part because of work to confirm the ship could safely be launched with the leak as is.<\/p>\n<p>After reaching orbit, two more helium leaks developed that prompted flight controllers to close valves leading to the affected plumbing, or manifolds, while they analyzed leak rates and potential work arounds. Closing the manifolds took down five of 28 reaction control system jets in the ship\u2019s service module and three of 20 more powerful \u201cOMAC\u201d thrusters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow. Yesterday was exciting, and I didn\u2019t think we could make it more exciting, and we did that today,\u201d said Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s Starliner program manager. \u201cIt was amazing. We accomplished a lot and really more than expected. We exercised the team, we exercised the crew and just had an outstanding day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was referring to the crew, flight controllers and engineers who faced a fresh set of problems Thursday, working in concert through the night and day to develop the procedures necessary to ensure a safe, successful docking.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TzVEdln_L8E?si=DnIRWkGewE10KEUo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kicking off the final stages of the rendezvous, the two leaking manifolds discovered Wednesday were re-opened to provide the helium pressure needed to operate all the spacecraft\u2019s available thrusters as needed.<\/p>\n<p>Engineers then had to deal with five RCS jets that were \u201cdeselected\u201d by the capsule\u2019s flight software when telemetry showed they were not performing exactly as expected. Nappi said the thrusters all appeared to be firing normally, but likely were deemed unusable because performance did not exactly match specifications written into the software. Similar issues were seen in the same aft-facing thrusters during an earlier unpiloted Starliner test flight when the jets were commanded to repeatedly fire in quick succession.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not yet known why the performance didn\u2019t match the software\u2019s expectations, but flight controllers managed to re-enable four of the five RCS jets after test firing them one by one. But by that point, the crew was forced to shift to a backup docking opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the process, Wilmore flew the Starliner manually, holding position about 650 feet from the space station. When ground teams concluded the spacecraft had enough thruster redundancy to proceed, the Starliner\u2019s automated control system took over and flew the ship in for a problem-free docking.<\/p>\n<p>As if the team hadn\u2019t had enough problems to deal with, a fourth helium leak was detected after docking. In any case, per standard procedure, flight controllers closed all the Starliner\u2019s helium manifolds after the linkup to prevent any residual leakage while attached to the station.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the leaks, NASA officials said more than enough helium remains on board to ensure a safe return to Earth at the end of a normal-duration or even extended mission.<\/p>\n<p>The helium leaks are all located in the Starliner\u2019s drum-shaped service module, which is discarded to burn up in the atmosphere before the crew capsule re-enters for landing.<\/p>\n<p>Given post-flight inspections are not possible, Boeing engineers are already planning inspections of hardware being built for downstream flights to look for signs of trouble and to develop possible screening procedures to identify problems well before flight.<\/p>\n<p>Asked to characterize the problems encountered by the Starliner to date, Nappi said they were relatively minor and similar to issues faced by other spacecraft, including the shuttle, making their initial flights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have two problems on this vehicle right now: the helium leak and figuring out how to fine tune these thrusters so that they\u2019re not selected off,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are pretty small, really, issues to go deal with, and we\u2019ll figure them out for the next mission. So I don\u2019t see these as significant at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Space station commander Oleg Kononenko, flanked on his left by Starliner commander Butch Wilmore and on his right by co-pilot Sunita Williams, anchors a group photo of the lab\u2019s seven long-duration crew members and their two visitors. Back row, left to right: cosmonaut Nikolai Chub, Jeanette Epps and Matthew Dominick; middle row, left to right: [&hellip;]<\/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":[670,822,717,190],"class_list":["post-10089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-cst-100-starliner-crew-flight-test","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10089"}],"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=10089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}