{"id":10496,"date":"2023-03-29T22:46:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T14:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/first-flight-of-astronauts-on-boeings-starliner-spacecraft-slips-to-july\/"},"modified":"2023-03-29T22:46:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T14:46:01","slug":"first-flight-of-astronauts-on-boeings-starliner-spacecraft-slips-to-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/first-flight-of-astronauts-on-boeings-starliner-spacecraft-slips-to-july\/","title":{"rendered":"First flight of astronauts on Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft slips to July"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Starliner crew module for Boeing\u2019s Crew Flight Test was lifted for attachment to the spacecraft\u2019s service module earlier this year inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Boeing\/John Grant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first piloted flight of Boeing\u2019s Starliner astronaut ferry ship is slipping from late April to at least July 21, officials said Wednesday, to allow more time to close out paperwork and to carry out an additional test of the spacecraft\u2019s parachute deploy system.<\/p>\n

Already years behind schedule, the Crew Flight Test, or CFT, mission will carry two veteran astronauts \u2013 Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and Sunita Williams \u2013 to the International Space Station to verify its readiness to begin regular service ferrying crews to and from the lab complex.<\/p>\n

Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich said there\u2019s nothing wrong with Starliner\u2019s parachute system and \u201cwhen we look across the vehicle, the Starliner spacecraft is in really good shape. \u2026 The Atlas Launch vehicle is ready for flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

But reviewing the paperwork needed to officially clear the spacecraft for flight, along with the addition of another ground test and fitting the flight into a busy East Coast launch schedule, combined to push the long-awaited mission from spring to the mid-summer timeframe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at all the different pieces, most of the work will complete in April for the flight,\u201d Stich said. \u201cBut there\u2019s one area that\u2019s extending out into the May time frame. And this really has to do with the certification products for the parachute system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, when we were looking at where to head with the (launch) date, trying to thread the needle at the (Space Force) Eastern Range and then the manifest considerations for ISS, we\u2019ve decided that the best launch attempt is no earlier than July 21.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts in 2014 to build commercial crew ships that could carry NASA and partner-agency astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX, under an initial $2.6 billion contract, designed a crewed version of its Dragon cargo ship that would ride into orbit atop the company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

Boeing designed its own capsule \u2014 Starliner \u2014 under a $4.2 billion contract, relying on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets for the trip to orbit.<\/p>\n

After a successful unpiloted test flight, SpaceX launched a two-man crew to the space station in May 2020. The company has now launched nine piloted Crew Dragon missions, seven for NASA and two privately funded flights.<\/p>\n

Boeing had hoped to launch its first crew in 2020 as well, but the company ran into major software problems during an unpiloted test flight in December 2019. After resolving unexpected trouble with corroded propulsion system valves, another test flight was launched in May 2022.<\/p>\n

This time around, the Starliner completed its major objectives, robotically docking with the space station as planned. At that point, NASA was aiming for a piloted launch later that year.<\/p>\n

But additional analysis and reviews pushed the flight into 2023 and after several more slips it\u2019s now moved out to July, assuming the necessary work can be completed in time and planners resolve a launch date conflict with another Atlas 5 mission.<\/p>\n

As for the Starliner\u2019s parachute system, Stich said \u201cthere are really no issues or concerns. Those parachutes are installed in the vehicle, they\u2019re in good shape, it\u2019s just a matter of going through all that data and making sure we\u2019re really ready to go fly safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The additional ground test was added to make sure a protective heat shield at the top of the spacecraft will deploy properly under high-stress abort conditions to enable release of the parachutes needed to slow the vehicle during its descent to landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do a test at the highest possible (stress) regime that they could see in an abort,\u201d Stich said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019ll do that test on the ground, just to make sure that system can deploy properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assuming the Crew Flight Test goes well and the Starliner wins NASA certification, the agency plans to launch two commercial crew flights to the space station each year, one using SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon and the other Boeing\u2019s Starliner.<\/p>\n

With two operational crew ferry ships available, NASA astronauts will have assured access to the space station even if problems ground one of the two spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting a second crew transportation capability for the space station is hugely important to us,\u201d Stich said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019ve been working really hard on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The Starliner crew module for Boeing\u2019s Crew Flight Test was lifted for attachment to the spacecraft\u2019s service module earlier this year inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Boeing\/John Grant The first piloted flight of Boeing\u2019s Starliner astronaut ferry […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-10496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496"}],"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=10496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}