{"id":45070,"date":"2024-06-29T18:52:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T10:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-orders-more-tests-on-starliner-but-says-crew-isnt-stranded-in-space\/"},"modified":"2024-06-29T18:52:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T10:52:37","slug":"nasa-orders-more-tests-on-starliner-but-says-crew-isnt-stranded-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-orders-more-tests-on-starliner-but-says-crew-isnt-stranded-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA orders more tests on Starliner, but says crew isn\u2019t stranded in space"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA and Boeing officials pushed back Friday on headlines that the commercial Starliner crew capsule is stranded at the International Space Station but said they need more time to analyze data before formally clearing the spacecraft for undocking and reentry.<\/p>\n

Two NASA astronauts, commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will spend at least a few more weeks on the space station as engineers on the ground conduct thruster tests to better understand issues with the Starliner propulsion system in orbit. Wilmore and Williams launched June 5 aboard an Atlas V rocket and docked at the station the next day, completing the first segment of Starliner\u2019s first test flight with astronauts.<\/p>\n

NASA managers originally planned for the Starliner spacecraft to remain docked at the space station for at least eight days, although they left open the possibility of a mission extension. The test flight is now likely to last at least a month and a half, and perhaps longer, as engineers wrestle with helium leaks and thruster glitches on Starliner\u2019s service module.<\/p>\n

Batteries on this Starliner spacecraft were initially only certified for a 45-day mission duration, but NASA officials said they are looking at extending the limit after confirming the batteries are functioning well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the luxury of time,\u201d said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s space operations mission directorate. \u201cWe\u2019re still in the middle of a test mission. We\u2019re still pressing forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, NASA and Boeing officials delayed Starliner\u2019s reentry and landing from mid-June, then from June 26, and now they have bypassed a potential landing opportunity in early July. Last week, NASA said in a statement that the agency\u2019s top leadership will meet to formally review the readiness of Starliner for reentry, something that wasn\u2019t part of the original plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not stuck on ISS\u201d<\/h2>\n

Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s commercial crew program, said Friday that he wanted to clear up \u201cmisunderstandings\u201d that led to headlines claiming the Starliner spacecraft was stuck or stranded at the space station.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,\u201d Stich said. \u201cOur plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time. We have a little bit more work to do to get there for the final return, but they\u2019re safe on (the) space station.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Starliner docked, the space station currently hosts three different crew spacecraft, including SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon and Russia\u2019s Soyuz. There are no serious plans under consideration to bring Wilmore and Williams home on a different spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we have the luxury of having multiple vehicles, and we work contingency plans for lots of different cases, but right now, we\u2019re really focused on returning Butch and Suni on Starliner,\u201d Stich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not stuck on the ISS,\u201d said Mark Nappi, Boeing\u2019s vice president in charge of the Starliner program. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty painful to read the things that are out there. We\u2019ve gotten a really good test flight that\u2019s been accomplished so far, and it\u2019s being viewed rather negatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stich said NASA officials should have \u201cmore frequent interaction\u201d with reporters to fill in gaps of information on the Starliner test flight. NASA\u2019s written updates are not always timely, and often lack details and context.<\/p>\n

NASA officials have cleared the Starliner spacecraft for an emergency return to Earth if astronauts need to evacuate the space station for safety or medical reasons. But NASA hasn\u2019t yet approved Starliner for reentry and landing under \u201cnominal\u201d conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it is a contingency situation, we\u2019re ready to put the crew on the spacecraft and bring them home as a lifeboat,\u201d Bowersox said. \u201cFor the nominal entry, we want to look at the data more before we make the final call to put the crew aboard the vehicle, and it\u2019s a serious enough call that we\u2019ll bring the senior management team together (for approval).\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Stich said the primary reason for keeping the spacecraft at the station for the next few weeks is to give engineers time to test a Starliner thruster on the ground. As it approached the station earlier this month, the craft\u2019s control software deemed five of Starliner\u2019s 28 reaction control system thrusters unusable.<\/p>\n

Four of these five control jets, made by Aerojet Rocketdyne, successfully fired during a test while docked to the station on June 15 and are cleared for use for the rest of the mission. But engineers can\u2019t be certain the small rocket engines fired at full thrust because of limitations while docked at the space station. They also have more work to do to determine why these five thrusters ran into problems in the first place.<\/p>\n

So engineers will take an identical thruster on the ground and test-fire it at a NASA facility in New Mexico. The test will simulate the exact sequence of firings Starliner\u2019s thrusters performed as it approached the space station and the firing sequence engineers expect when Starliner undocks and returns to Earth.<\/p>\n

The test will take a couple of weeks, then engineers will inspect the thruster. \u201cThe test will help us understand the thruster performance,\u201d Stich said. \u201cIt may give us 100 percent confidence that everything we\u2019ve seen on orbit is fine. It\u2019s just one more piece of data that we can have before we actually de-orbit the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the mission, Starliner\u2019s service module will detach before reentry and burn up, while the crew module parachutes to an airbag-cushioned landing, likely at White Sands, New Mexico. Officials are eager to gather as much data on thruster performance as possible in flight because they won\u2019t have an opportunity to inspect the service module after landing.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Depending on what they find after the testing, NASA and Boeing officials may decide to test-fire Starliner\u2019s thrusters again in orbit or adjust the sequence of thruster firings after the spacecraft leaves the space station to head for reentry. Even if managers decide they don\u2019t need to change anything with the Starliner spacecraft currently in orbit, data from the upcoming ground test should help nail down the root cause of the problem.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce that testing is done, then we\u2019ll look at the plan for landing,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a targeted date today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft encountered similar thruster issues on an unpiloted test flight in 2022, and engineers thought software corrections would resolve the problem. \u201cWe clearly missed something,\u201d Stich said. \u201cWe clearly have an integrated effect between how we\u2019re executing the rendezvous profile and how we\u2019re using the thrusters, so I think we learned something there.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA and Boeing cleared Starliner for launch earlier this month despite knowing the spacecraft had a small helium leak. The spacecraft uses helium to pressurize the service module\u2019s propulsion system when in transit to and from the space station.<\/p>\n

Ground controllers discovered four more small helium leaks during Starliner\u2019s flight up to the station. Stich said engineers continue to test seals on the ground to determine what caused the leaks, but ground teams have closed valves to isolate the helium system while Starliner is attached to the space station, so leaks have temporarily stopped.<\/p>\n

The valves will reopen for the flight back to Earth, but Stich said Starliner has 10 times the amount of helium it needs to complete the return trip.<\/p>\n

Nappi said engineers are confident Starliner is safe to bring Wilmore and Williams home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand these issues for a safe return, but we don\u2019t understand these issues enough yet to fix them permanently,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the only way that we can do that is to take the time in this unique environment and get more data, run more tests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the Starliner spacecraft is back on the ground, NASA and Boeing plan to certify the crew capsule for operational long-duration flights. At that time, Starliner will join SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft as one of two US human-rated spaceships ferrying astronauts to and from the space station.<\/p>\n

NASA is still holding open the possibility for Boeing to launch the first operational Starliner flight to the space station in February. However, engineers must resolve the thruster issues and helium leaks before the next mission, and it appears likely NASA will tap SpaceX to take the February launch slot, pushing the first of Boeing\u2019s six operational missions until the second half of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA and Boeing officials pushed back Friday on headlines that the commercial Starliner crew capsule is stranded at the International Space Station but said they need more time to analyze data before formally clearing the spacecraft for undocking and reentry. Two NASA astronauts, commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will spend at least a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44890,"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":[670,524,1545,717,190,1306],"class_list":["post-45070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-crew","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-starliner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45070"}],"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=45070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}