{"id":15334,"date":"2016-08-03T01:23:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T17:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeing-nears-fix-for-cst-100-starliner-design-hitch\/"},"modified":"2016-08-03T01:23:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T17:23:18","slug":"boeing-nears-fix-for-cst-100-starliner-design-hitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeing-nears-fix-for-cst-100-starliner-design-hitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing nears fix for CST-100 Starliner design hitch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The pressure hull for Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner structural test article sits inside a repurposed space shuttle hangar at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this July 25 photo. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing says engineers are resolving concerns with the mass and aerodynamic shape of the company\u2019s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew carrier, and officials are optimistic the spaceship will be ready to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station in early 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everything goes well, we\u2019ll meet schedule,\u201d said Chris Ferguson, a former space shuttle astronaut and deputy program manager for Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, in a recent interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cIt\u2019s the unknown unknowns (we\u2019re concerned about), but we\u2019re optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ferguson, Boeing engineers are wrapping up analyses of two design concerns that combined to trigger a delay in the first CST-100 crewed test flight from late 2017 until February 2018.<\/p>\n

One issue involved the mass of the crew capsule, which outgrew the lift capability of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket selected to put it into orbit.<\/p>\n

The CST-100 Starliner will ride an Atlas 5 rocket with two solid rocket boosters and a dual-engine Centaur upper stage, and although Boeing and ULA engineers considered adding a third strap-on motor to compensate for the capsule\u2019s extra weight, managers now have the spacecraft back under its mass allowance, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a certain percentage below the lift capability of the Atlas 5 we were aiming for, and then there are natural margins with mass growth allowances that you always put in, just in case you get some surprises at the last minute,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve identified all the necessary items that will get us back below the line for mass,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cOf course, when you go do that kind of work you have to go back and revisit some of the drawings and some of the designs. I\u2019d say about half of it came pretty easy. The other half was a challenge. but we\u2019ve got an engineering solution for all the fixes needed to get us back underneath the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson said Boeing has a model of the Atlas 5 rocket and CST-100 Starliner in a wind tunnel to verify a change to capsule\u2019s outer shape devised to overcome higher-than-expected aerodynamic launch loads discovered in testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had one issue, a non-linear aerodynamic loads issue, where they were getting some high acoustic loads right behind the spacecraft,\u201d said Phil McAlister, head of NASA\u2019s commercial spaceflight development office in Washington.<\/p>\n

Atlas 5 rockets carrying the Boeing crew ship will encounter different aerodynamic and acoustic environments than on normal satellite launches. The CST-100 Starliner will not fly inside a nose shroud on top of the Atlas 5, as other payloads do.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of a CST-100 Starliner capsule on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re in the final phase of some wind tunnel testing,\u201d McAlister told members of the NASA Advisory Council\u2019s human spaceflight subcommittee last week. \u201cThey think they\u2019ve got a good solution by putting on an extended skirt behind the capsule. We think that\u2019s a pretty good solution, too, but we really want to see some of that final wind tunnel test data come through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Ferguson said he was happy to have a solution for the mass and aerodynamic issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got them under control,\u201d Ferguson told Spaceflight Now. \u201cThe good news is there are no additional large problems that have arisen in the last six months, so maybe we\u2019re at the point where we\u2019ve investigated everything, and we finally have a design we\u2019re confident in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the CST-100 assembly facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, technicians are finishing work on a structural test article of the craft\u2019s weld-less crew module and readying it for shipment across the country to a Boeing site in Huntington Beach, California.<\/p>\n

Engineers there will add the spacecraft\u2019s outer skin and heat shield.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really going to start looking like a spaceship when it gets out there,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cIt will be out there until late this year going through a series of shock and vibration (tests).\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, components of the first flight-worthy CST-100 spaceship are arriving at KSC for assembly of a capsule destined to fly on a pad abort test next year. That capsule is dubbed the qualification test vehicle, and it will be the first Starliner unit to include the avionics, computers and many of the other systems needed for flight.<\/p>\n

The qualification capsule will not have the environmental control and life support systems required to support human passengers, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe avionics, the items that have to go through qualification, the pumps and fans, they start showing up here in late summer, and then we\u2019ll integrate them into the first spacecraft that we fire up and see how it performs as an integrated system,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

The first power-up of a CST-100 spaceship on the ground is expected late this year, with tests continuing into 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris Ferguson, director of CST-100 crew and mission operations, talks with NASA sstronaut Megan McArthur during a visit to Advanced Scientific Concepts in Santa Barbara, California, which is building 3D Flash Light Detection and Ranging sensors for Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHopefully, if everything goes well, it\u2019s just a matter of following the instructions that we set forth to assemble the remaining two which will become the Orbital Flight Test and Crewed Flight Test vehicles,\u201d Ferguson said, referring to the spaceships that will launch on Boeing\u2019s unpiloted and piloted demo flights.<\/p>\n

The CST-100 qualification unit is not expected to fly into space, but Ferguson said Boeing has the ability to upgrade it for orbital missions if required.<\/p>\n

Qualifying each CST-100 component, both individually and at the full spacecraft level, is one of the big jobs on the Boeing team\u2019s docket, and that work does not get the attention of a flight test.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got about 200 avionics boxes that need to go through their own level of qualification,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cThat qualification is done at the vendor. What we do is we being all the systems together, so they all sing, and then we say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m happy with the way this subsystem works \u2014 the electrical system or the environment system.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials from SpaceX, NASA\u2019s other commercial crew transportation provider, have been less public about the problems, if any, it has encountered in the Crew Dragon program, but NASA officials said they are happy with both contractors.<\/p>\n

A Crew Dragon test article has been subjected to structural loads tests this summer to ensure it can withstand the stresses of spaceflight.<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon\u2019s second \u201cdelta critical design review,\u201d a major milestone to clean up lingering design issues, is due to wrap up in late August or early September, McAlister said.<\/p>\n

Other major SpaceX milestones coming soon include a full-up test of the Crew Dragon\u2019s life support system, activation of KSC\u2019s launch pad 39A for Falcon rocket flights, and qualification of the capsule\u2019s unique four-parachute landing system.<\/p>\n

McAlister said schedules proposed by Boeing and SpaceX, the two companies tapped by the agency end U.S. reliance on Russia\u2019s Soyuz spacecraft, are \u201coptimistic but achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX currently targets August 2017 for the first piloted test flight of its Crew Dragon capsule, according to internal NASA schedule documents, while Boeing\u2019s similar demo mission with two astronauts is set for February 2018.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to conduct a major review of the test flights a few months after each mission \u2014 in October 2017 for SpaceX and May 2018 for Boeing \u2014 before formally certifying the spacecraft for regular crew rotation sorties to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

One of NASA\u2019s concerns with SpaceX\u2019s crew program has been the introduction of an upgraded, higher-thrust version of the Falcon 9 rocket. The new configuration burns a super-chilled mixture of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n

Stored at colder temperatures than normal, the modified propellant mix allows more fuel and oxidizer to fit into the Falcon 9 and gives its Merlin engines more thrust, boosting the rocket\u2019s lift capacity.<\/p>\n

But the cryogenic propellant must be loaded aboard the rocket in the final half-hour of the countdown to keep it from heating up in the warm ambient temperatures of Central Florida. Rockets are normally fueled several hours before launch.<\/p>\n

\"In
In this June photo, the first test article of a SpaceX Crew Dragon undergoes structural load testing to demonstrate the spacecraft\u2019s ability to withstand the tremendous forces it\u2019s exposed to during spaceflight. The backbone of Crew Dragon is a metallic welded pressure vessel. SpaceX has completed manufacturing of the first two pressure vessels to be used for ground testing, and is currently manufacturing two Crew Dragon flight articles. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The change means astronauts will board the Crew Dragon capsule on top of the Falcon 9 rocket before fueling, and the SpaceX launch team will pump propellants into the two-stage launcher once the crew members are strapped in their seats.<\/p>\n

NASA officials were at first uncomfortable with SpaceX\u2019s proposal to load fuel with the astronauts on-board \u2014 Soyuz and shuttle crews strapped in once the rockets were already fueled \u2014 but McAlister said managers are getting accustomed to the plan.<\/p>\n

SpaceX had trouble with handling the super-chilled propellants on the first couple of flights of the upgraded Falcon 9, prompting a series of aborts and scrubs during attempts to launch a commercial SES television broadcasting satellite in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting better data about that, and quite frankly SpaceX is getting better about how to handle that,\u201d McAlister said. \u201cI think we are getting more comfortable with it, but we\u2019re not ready to say we\u2019re good. We\u2019re still working through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAlister said Boeing and SpaceX, which signed crew transportation contracts with NASA in 2014 worth $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, are \u201cgrinding\u201d through their development steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the real tough work,\u201d McAlister said. \u201cI think, with commercial crew in the early years, most of the focus was on the policy. I believe most of those discussions have been concluded, and now we\u2019re in the blocking and tackling phase of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interactions between NASA and contractor teams have been fruitful, said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA\u2019s human exploration and operations mission directorate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s good push and pull both ways,\u201d Gerstenmaier said, as NASA, Boeing and SpaceX sift through paperwork to ensure both capsules conform with the space agency\u2019s stringent human-rating standards.<\/p>\n

Despite SpaceX\u2019s schedule, which could allow for operational crew flights by the end of 2017 if achieved, NASA says it will not count on the new commercial spacecraft being ready to send up residents to the space station until some time in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably about halfway through, maybe a little bit more than halfway through, the development and hope to be completing both partners in the early part of \u201918,\u201d McAlister said.<\/p>\n

NASA has purchased seats for U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts to launch on Russian Soyuz capsules through 2018, with return trips continuing into mid-2019.<\/p>\n

McAlister said that the agency is cognizant of the uncertainty in the commercial crew schedule, and when NASA needs to sign an agreement to purchase more Soyuz seats if required.<\/p>\n

Members of the committee raised concerns about the urgency of a decision by NASA to buy more Soyuz seats. Wayne Hale, interim chairman of the advisory council\u2019s human exploration and operations subcommittee, suggested NASA had to decide by the end of the year whether to procure Soyuz rides for its astronauts in 2019.<\/p>\n

McAlister said he is aware of the dilemma.<\/p>\n

NASA has ordered four full-up crew rotation flights \u2014 two each from Boeing and SpaceX \u2014 but has not set target launch dates or determined which company will fly station crews first. Each mission is baselined to fly with four passengers, ferrying them to the space station and then returning them to Earth about a half-year later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future availability of Soyuz is not certain, so we\u2019re going to continue to monitor that,\u201d McAlister told the subcommittee July 26. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got some (schedule) margin today, so our partners are not feeling a lot of schedule pressure, (but) we want to make them schedule-aware.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like having that Soyuz backup, but how we introduce the Soyuz vehicle into that flow is something we\u2019re going to have to be very careful about,\u201d McAlister said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pressure hull for Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner structural test article sits inside a repurposed space shuttle hangar at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this July 25 photo. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett Boeing says engineers are resolving concerns with the mass and aerodynamic shape of the company\u2019s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew carrier, and officials are […]<\/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":[724,670,524,235,1565,1545,316,1306],"class_list":["post-15334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-crew","tag-crew-dragon","tag-cst-100","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-spacex","tag-starliner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15334"}],"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=15334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}