More than three weeks into a mission that was initially designed to last just a few days, the two astronauts piloting the inaugural crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft still don’t know when they’ll return home.
Officials have repeatedly stressed that Starliner — which experienced problems with helium leaks and thruster outages during its trip to the International Space Station in early June — is safe to bring astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home.
Still, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said Friday (28) that the space agency is considering extending Starliner’s maximum mission duration from 45 days to 90 days. And there is still no set return date on the horizon.
Part of the reason for extending the mission is ground tests that Boeing and NASA plan to conduct in New Mexico to better understand why some of Starliner’s thrusters unexpectedly failed during the first leg of the journey.
Four of the five failed thrusters have since been restored, and none of Starliner’s thrusters are expected to function for the remainder of the mission.
“We are just looking at the execution schedule [dos testes no Novo México] and then reviewing the data,” Stich said at a news conference Friday. “And that’s what’s really difficult, I would say, is determining a landing date.”
“We are in no rush to go home,” he added.
Stich and Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president and manager of the Commercial Crew Program, also said Friday that engineers are still unsure about the root cause of Starliner’s problems.
Part of the goal of conducting ground tests while the vehicle is still in space, Nappi explained, is to try to narrow down possible reasons for thruster malfunctions.
“So if [os testes no Novo México] “If they’re done and they give us all the answers, we can just undock and go home,” Nappi said. “If they’re done and they say, ‘Here’s 80 percent of the answer. What if you just run one more hot fire test while docked?’ [na Starliner em órbita]then you can get 100% of the answers’. So we want you to [a Starliner] be there so we can get that information.”
Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore have integrated with the rest of the crew currently aboard the International Space Station and are performing routine tasks.
The beginning of a historic flight
Boeing’s Starliner’s troubles began with its launch atop an Atlas V rocket on June 5.
The mission team detected a helium leak before launch, but did not consider it threatening enough to abandon liftoff.
When asked about that decision on Friday, Nappi said he had no regrets about the decision to launch and enter the test flight.
He added that NASA and Boeing have always emphasized that this mission was a test flight, with the goal of collecting data to improve Starliner’s performance on future missions.
Orbital setbacks
Several other helium leaks were identified while the spacecraft was en route to the International Space Station, along with problems with the thrusters. The problems occurred in the Starliner’s service module, a cylindrical accessory on the underside of the spacecraft that provides much of the vehicle’s power during flight.
By definition, the service module will not survive the trip back to Earth. The module is destroyed when the Starliner spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere.
That’s why the Boeing and NASA teams chose to leave Starliner safely docked with the space station while they worked to learn as much as possible about these issues.
It’s not yet clear whether NASA will extend the mission’s maximum duration to 90 days. Stich said officials are expected to release Starliner’s battery life for that purpose, though he noted that the batteries are being recharged at the space station and should function the same after 90 days as they would for the first 45.
Delays, cost overruns and missed deadlines are common features of the spaceflight industry. But Boeing has faced challenges that stand out, especially when the Starliner program is directly compared to its competitor, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
That spacecraft, which falls under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program for carrying astronauts, completed its first test flight in 2020 and has been flying routine missions ever since.
SpaceX had the benefit of designing the Crew Dragon spacecraft from the back of its Cargo Dragon vehicle, which for years was used to deliver supplies to the International Space Station before its successor took off.
Boeing, on the other hand, designed the Starliner from scratch.
Overcoming the perception that Boeing underperformed on this program, however, has been a challenge for the aerospace giant that is already suffering major reputational setbacks in its aerospace division.
“We have a very well-executed test flight so far that is being viewed quite negatively,” Nappi said on Friday.
The history of Boeing
Starliner’s journey to this historic crewed test mission began in 2014, when NASA contracted with Boeing and SpaceX to develop a spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station under what the federal agency dubbed the Commercial Crew Program.
The vehicle has faced years of delays, roadblocks and additional expenses that have cost the company billions of dollars, according to public financial records.
Starliner’s first uncrewed test mission took place in December 2019. The test flight was filled with mishaps and ended abruptly when the vehicle failed to launch in orbit. The result was a symptom of software issues, including a coding error that caused an internal clock to run 11 hours ahead.
A second flight test in May 2022 revealed additional software issues and problems with some of the vehicle’s thrusters.
Stich indicated during a June 6 press conference that it’s possible engineers haven’t completely addressed these issues. “We thought we had fixed this problem,” he said.
“I think we’re missing something fundamental that’s going on inside the thruster,” he added.
That’s the crux of the mysteries Boeing and NASA are trying to unravel during the Starliner spacecraft’s extended mission.
Extended stays in space
It is not uncommon for astronauts to unexpectedly extend their stay aboard the space station – by days, weeks or even months.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, for example, was scheduled to spend about six months aboard the International Space Station for his first trip to low-Earth orbit, which began in September 2022.
Instead, he spent a total of 371 days in space after a coolant leak was discovered coming from his original vehicle – a Russian Soyuz capsule – while it was docked at the orbiting outpost.
Astronauts also routinely extend their stay on the station by several days due to a variety of factors, including bad weather on Earth or other schedule adjustments.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
