{"id":45141,"date":"2024-06-06T21:10:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeings-starliner-finally-soars-but-mission-control-reports-more-helium-leaks\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T21:10:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:10:08","slug":"boeings-starliner-finally-soars-but-mission-control-reports-more-helium-leaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeings-starliner-finally-soars-but-mission-control-reports-more-helium-leaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing\u2019s Starliner finally soars, but mission control reports more helium leaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of delays, Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft finally rocketed into orbit from Florida on Wednesday, sending two veteran NASA astronauts on a long-delayed shakedown cruise to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The Starliner capsule lifted off at 10:52 am EDT (14:52 UTC) on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Fifteen minutes later, after shedding two strap-on boosters and a core stage powered by a Russian RD-180 engine, the Atlas V\u2019s Centaur upper stage released Starliner right on target to begin a nearly 26-hour pursuit of the space station. Docking at the space station is set for 12:15 pm EDT (16:15 UTC) Thursday, where NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will spend at least a week before coming back to Earth.<\/p>\n

In remarks shortly after Wednesday\u2019s launch, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Wilmore and Williams, both former US Navy pilots, will \u201ctest this thing from izzard to gizzard\u201d to ensure Boeing\u2019s Starliner is ready for operational six-month crew rotation missions to the ISS.<\/p>\n

A long time coming<\/h2>\n

This is a big moment for NASA and Boeing. The launch of the Starliner test flight moves NASA closer to having access to two independent commercial spacecraft ferrying astronauts into low-Earth orbit, the cornerstone of an initiative the agency started working toward a decade-and-a-half ago. For Boeing, the first launch of astronauts aboard Starliner comes as the once-vaunted aerospace contractor wrestles with safety concerns over its workhorse 737 jetliner.<\/p>\n

NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to complete development of the Starliner spacecraft in 2014, with the goal of flying astronauts on the capsule beginning in 2017. The company first announced the spacecraft that became Starliner, then known only as the CST-100, in 2010 at the Farnborough International Airshow.<\/p>\n

At the announcement in 2010, Boeing officials said they hoped to declare the CST-100 spacecraft operational in 2015, but Congress initially didn\u2019t appropriate the funding NASA said it needed to support development of new commercial crew vehicles after the retirement of the space shuttle. Then, Boeing ran into numerous technical issues, resulting in a major fuel leak during ground testing, an aborted unpiloted test flight to the space station in 2019, and further delays caused by valve corrosion. Another test flight in 2022 achieved all of Boeing\u2019s major objectives, setting the stage for the crew test flight.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

But last year, officials discovered Boeing had mistakenly used flammable tape around wire bundles inside the Starliner spacecraft, leading to another schedule slip. Engineers also found they needed to redesign a component of the capsule\u2019s parachute system, punting the crew test flight into 2024. These delays cost Boeing nearly $1.5 billion from its own coffers. US taxpayers were off the hook for the cost overruns because NASA\u2019s contract with Boeing is fixed-price.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which NASA supported alongside Boeing in the commercial crew program, started flying astronauts in 2020. It has now launched 13 crew missions for NASA and private customers.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.<\/p>\n

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

Two previous tries to launch the Starliner crew test flight on May 6 and June 1 were cut short by a faulty valve on the Atlas V rocket and a failed power supply for a ground computer at the launch pad. In the time between those two launch attempts, engineers discovered a small but persistent helium leak from Starliner\u2019s service module. Helium, which the spacecraft uses to push propellants from internal tanks to maneuvering thrusters, is an inert gas and non-toxic, and managers eventually determined the leak was stable and did not add any unacceptable risk to the mission.<\/p>\n

That led to approvals to proceed with the June 1 launch attempt, then another countdown Wednesday that was capped by the successful launch of Starliner. Milestones achieved early in the flight showed the spacecraft was performing well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are off and running on the mission,\u201d Wilmore radioed mission control in Houston on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cAnd I can tell you, I wish we could have taken you all on that ascent. It was pretty thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit shocking that we actually launched,\u201d Williams said. This was the third time the two astronauts had strapped into the Starliner capsule in hopes of launching into space, following the two scrubbed launch attempts over the last month.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty cool to jump off the planet and then feel the Atlas V do its thing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere were a few bumps here and there, a couple of Gs.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was also the first time a crew launched on ULA\u2019s Atlas V rocket, which flew its 100th mission Wednesday. It\u2019s also the first time astronauts have launched on a member of the storied Atlas family of rockets since the final flight of NASA\u2019s Mercury program in 1963.<\/p>\n

A few hours after launch, Wilmore and Williams each took turns at the controls of Starliner for a series of demonstrations to show that crew members could manually point and fly Starliner if its automation failed. Those checkouts all appeared to go well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuni and I have done some manual maneuvering, and it is precise, more so even than the simulator,\u201d Wilmore said. \u201cI mean, stopping exactly on a number you want to stop on. The precision is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One leak becomes three<\/h2>\n

When he spoke to ground controllers Wednesday afternoon, Wilmore said, thus far, the Starliner test flight had \u201cjust gone swimmingly.\u201d But as the crew prepared for an overnight sleep shift ahead of Thursday\u2019s docking at the space station, two new helium leaks popped up on Boeing\u2019s capsule.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft\u2019s service module houses most of Starliner\u2019s propulsion system, including 20 larger orbital maneuvering engines and 28 less powerful reaction-control system thrusters for fine-pointing and smaller adjustments. Starliner has four doghouse-shaped propulsion pods around the circumference of the service module, with lines for hydrazine fuel, nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer, and helium pressurant routed into each thruster pack.<\/p>\n

Two helium manifolds feed each doghouse. The leak discovered prior to Starliner\u2019s launch was traced to a flange in one manifold in the port, or left-side, doghouse pod. Late Wednesday, engineers detected two more helium leaks\u2014one with the other manifold in the port doghouse, and another in the doghouse on the top side of the service module.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Brandon Burroughs, a Boeing engineer, described the two new helium leaks as \u201csmall\u201d in a discussion broadcast on NASA TV\u2019s live coverage of the Starliner test flight. These leaks didn\u2019t appear during troubleshooting of the known leak on the ground.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Boeing engineers are evaluating helium leaks on two of four \u201cdoghouse\u201d propulsion pods on the Starliner spacecraft\u2019s service module.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n L3Harris\/Aerojet Rocketdyne<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

With this finding, three of Starliner\u2019s eight helium manifolds now show signs of leakage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like we picked up a couple more helium leaks,\u201d said Neal Negata, an engineer serving as spacecraft communicator, or CAPCOM, in mission control. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to find out exactly what you mean by picked up another helium leak, so give it to us,\u201d Wilmore radioed to the ground a few moments later.<\/p>\n

Negata told Wilmore they would isolate the manifolds newly discovered to be leaking helium while the manifold known to be leaking before launch would remain open. \u201cThat will give the teams the ability to manage the spacecraft,\u201d Burroughs said.<\/p>\n

After Wilmore and Williams woke up from their sleep shift early Thursday, ground controllers told the crew that the spacecraft would still be able to proceed with rendezvous and docking at the space station.<\/p>\n

Before getting comfortable with launching with the known helium leak, engineers determined the Starliner spacecraft could handle up to four more helium leaks, even if the existing leak worsened, according to Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s commercial crew program manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough system,\u201d Stich told reporters last month. \u201cThis is a high-pressure system, and helium is a very small, tiny molecule, and it tends to leak.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its configuration late Wednesday night with two helium manifolds closed, six of the spacecraft\u2019s 28 reaction-control system thrusters were disabled. The capsule has the ability to operate on a subset of its thrusters, and Burroughs said Boeing engineers believe \u201cthe helium system remains safe for flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mission control told the Starliner crew early Thursday that they planned to recover the disabled jets before docking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not unexpected, and we plan for cases like this,\u201d Burroughs said. \u201cThe team will be working to make sure we\u2019re in a good configuration to complete our mission, which is docking and rendezvous with the ISS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Updated at 7 am EDT (11:00 UTC) Thursday with more information on the helium leaks.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of delays, Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft finally rocketed into orbit from Florida on Wednesday, sending two veteran NASA astronauts on a long-delayed shakedown cruise to the International Space Station. The Starliner capsule lifted off at 10:52 am EDT (14:52 UTC) on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Fifteen minutes later, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45089,"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":[7758,670,524,1545,717,25,190,1306,750],"class_list":["post-45141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-v","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-crew","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-launch","tag-nasa","tag-starliner","tag-united-launch-alliance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141"}],"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=45141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}