{"id":17387,"date":"2022-05-21T01:24:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T17:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/uncrewed-boeing-starliner-capsule-links-up-with-space-station-after-excruciating-wait\/"},"modified":"2022-05-21T01:24:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T17:24:31","slug":"uncrewed-boeing-starliner-capsule-links-up-with-space-station-after-excruciating-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/uncrewed-boeing-starliner-capsule-links-up-with-space-station-after-excruciating-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncrewed Boeing Starliner capsule links up with space station after \u2018excruciating\u2019 wait"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"342\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-630x342.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-699614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-630x342.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-1260x684.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-768x417.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-1536x834.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/220520-starliner-2048x1112.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Boeing\u2019s Starliner space capsule hangs in front of the International Space Station in preparation for docking. (NASA via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner space taxi docked with the International Space Station for the first time today during an uncrewed flight test, marking one more big step toward being cleared to carry astronauts to orbit.<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last few hours have been excruciating,\u201d Kathy Lueders, NASA\u2019s associate administrator for space operations, acknowledged during a post-docking teleconference for journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a few glitches, Lueders and other leaders of the NASA and Boeing teams said they were generally pleased with Starliner\u2019s performance, beginning with Thursday\u2019s launch from Florida and continuing with today\u2019s hours-long series of orbital maneuvers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve learned so much from this mission over the past 24 hours,\u201d Lueders said.<\/p>\n<p>The docking was originally scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. PT), but a snag involving components of the docking system delayed the hookup for more than an hour. Starliner had to be commanded to retract its docking ring, reset the system and try again. The official time of docking was 8:28 p.m. ET (5:28 p.m. PT).<\/p>\n<p>Mission managers also reported problems with the spacecraft\u2019s thermal cooling loops and a couple of its reaction control system thrusters, but workarounds were quickly put into place. <\/p>\n<p>Boeing\u2019s vice president and program manager for commercial crew, Mark Nappi, said the cooling loops may have gotten too cold because there were no warm-blooded astronauts inside the capsule to heat things up. The only occupant was a sensor-equipped mannequin nicknamed Rosie the Rocketeer.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"OFT-2 Starliner docking to the International Space Station\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rwYNxqMqlZk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Engineers continued to troubleshoot problems with two of Starliner\u2019s more powerful maneuvering thrusters, which shut down prematurely during Thursday\u2019s orbital insertion. Nappi said there were \u201cthree or so\u201d plausible causes for the shutdowns, but even if the issue isn\u2019t resolved, Starliner can complete this test mission without the balky thrusters.<\/p>\n<p>The thruster system is designed to burn up with the rest of Starliner\u2019s service module when it\u2019s jettisoned during atmospheric re-entry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may never know what the real cause of this is, because we don\u2019t get this vehicle back,\u201d Nappi said.<\/p>\n<p>The space station\u2019s crew is scheduled to open up Starliner\u2019s hatch on Saturday and begin a series of on-orbit checkouts. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft is due to undock and descend to a touchdown in New Mexico on May 25. NASA and Boeing can wait out unacceptable weather, or even choose an alternate landing site in the western U.S. if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Starliner has already gotten farther through the checklist than it did back in 2019, when an automated timer malfunctioned and forced the team to cancel a planned space station docking. Boeing had to arrange for a second uncrewed test flight at its own expense, with costs amounting to $595 million so far.<\/p>\n<p>If this test mission goes well, Boeing\u2019s Starliner could take its place alongside SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon as a U.S.-built spaceship for NASA astronauts to ride later this year. NASA pays the companies on a per-ride basis, in a contractual arrangement that\u2019s similar to a taxi service\u2019s business model.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 2:10 p.m. PT June 6:<\/strong> An earlier version of this report incorrectly said the balky thrusters that are part of the maneuvering system on Starliner\u2019s service module were built at Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s facility in Redmond, Wash. The Redmond team provides the crew module\u2019s thrusters, but the thrusters on the service module are provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Los Angeles team. Sorry about the error!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boeing\u2019s Starliner space capsule hangs in front of the International Space Station in preparation for docking. (NASA via Twitter) Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner space taxi docked with the International Space Station for the first time today during an uncrewed flight test, marking one more big step toward being cleared to carry astronauts to orbit. But it [&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":[670,717,190,1306],"class_list":["post-17387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-starliner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17387"}],"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=17387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}