When NASA astronauts attempted to dock Boeing's first crewed Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station on Thursday (June 6), they had to wait.
Five stern thrusters on the Starliner The service module was out of service. And that was after flight controllers found fixes for two new helium leaks on the spacecraft, in addition to one it already had. Additionally, its cooling system was using more water than expected and another helium leak would be detected later. Starliner docked with the space station.
So what's up? Why all the failures?
NASA and boeingFor their part, they are not worried. After all, the Starliner mission to the ISS, Boeing's crewed flight test, is, in both name and nature, a test flight. The mission is only the sixth in history in which NASA astronauts fly a new spacecraft for the first time. Boeing finally arrives at the ISS with astronauts after its first uncrewed test flight he didn't do it in 2019 Only to have more problems that delayed this manned flight marked a huge step forward.
And those failures? So far, NASA and Boeing have surpassed them.
Starliner docked at the ISS just over an hour later than planned after some manual flights by NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (the mission commander) and Sunita Williams (its pilot) helped Boeing engineers recover four of the five downed boosters. The fifth will remain disabled for the rest of the mission, but the failure (which may actually be in Starliner's software and not in the thrusters themselves) will not pose a risk to the return to Earth.
Related: First Boeing Starliner Astronaut Flight: Live Updates
The astronauts also refilled the water tank in their cooling system with an onboard supply and future vehicles will carry a larger tank from the start, Boeing said. As for those helium leaks, Starliner has an ample supply of gas for the rest of the mission, but Boeing engineers still want to understand why they keep appearing.
“We have two problems on this vehicle right now, the helium leak and figuring out how to tune these boosters so they don't shut down,” Boeing Starliner program manager Mark Nappi told reporters at a news conference Thursday. the night. “Actually, those are pretty small problems that we need to address and we'll resolve them before the next mission.”
NASA's Steve Stich, who oversees the agency's Commercial Crew Program, compared Boeing's Starliner flight to the agency's first. space shuttle mission, STS-1, which launched astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen into orbit in 1981.
“I would say some of the challenges we face are very similar to those of the space shuttle,” Stich said. The water cooling system failure, for example, is strikingly similar to another POT faced on shuttle flights throughout that 30-year program, he added.
Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams have a busy week or more on the space station, where they will test everything from how comfortable Starliner is to sleep in and how well it can accommodate crews of four astronauts (its nominal complement) to how the capsule serves as a safe haven in case of an emergency at the station.
“Because they are only scheduled to be there for a relatively short time, we work with them much harder than we do with our ISS crews,” Emily Nelson, chief flight director of the crew flight test, told reporters. of Starliner, from NASA. “There are many cash registers.”
Many of those tests are aimed at preparing the station and the Starliner program for Starliner 1, the first of at least six astronaut taxi flights for NASA by Boeing under its $4.2 billion Commercial Crew Program contract. Dollars. That mission is expected to be released in early 2025. Boeing is one of two companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to fly NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The other, SpaceXhas already carried out eight missions for NASA in its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Nelson said ISS flight controllers can use cameras on the station's robotic arm to inspect affected thrusters on Starliner in case any problems can be detected that way. Since the boosters are in Starliner's service module, which is jettisoned before reentry, Boeing will not bring it back for study on Earth.
Still, NASA and Boeing are confident that the booster problem observed during docking will not pose a major threat. During Boeing's second uncrewed flight test, who really arrived at the space station In 2022, several boosters also went offline in the same way, Stich said.
“I think we're not necessarily worried about all the boosters,” Stich said, adding that those affected on the 2022 flight performed well after being recovered. “Those thrusters worked fine after we brought them back.”
For their part, Wilmore and Williams are eager to get to work putting Starliner through its paces.
The astronauts received a warm welcome as they floated toward the ISS from Starliner, with the ringing of a ship's bell, some weightless dancing and hugs from the station's seven-person Expedition 71 crew representing the United States and Russia. They have until at least June 14, if not a little longer, to complete their work, and will only have one day off during that time, NASA said.
“We are ready to work here for international partners,” Wilmore said. “Whatever you ask us to do. We're ready.”
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