NASA and Boeing managers have again determined to prolong the Starliner crew capsule’s keep on the International Space Station, passing up a June 26 re-entry to enable extra time for evaluation and testing to be certain that helium leaks and thruster failures are absolutely understood, officers mentioned late Friday.
NASA plans to maintain a proper re-entry readiness assessment earlier than setting a new touchdown target date. Given the on-going evaluation, the Starliner’s undocking and return to Earth possible will slip previous two already deliberate house station spacewalks on Monday and July 2.
In the meantime, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are still cleared to undock and fly house at any time if a station malfunction or different problem crops up that requires a fast departure. As such, officers say they aren’t stranded in orbit.
NASA
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, supervisor of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, mentioned in an announcement. “We are letting the data drive our decision-making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.”
In addition, he mentioned, given the prolonged period of the Starliner mission, “it is appropriate for us to complete an agency-level review, similar to what was done ahead of the NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 return after two months on orbit, to document the agency’s formal acceptance on proceeding as planned.”
He was referring to the primary flight of astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ferry ship in 2020. But the Demo-2 mission didn’t expertise issues like those famous thus far within the Starliner’s first piloted take a look at flight.
The problem for Starliner troubleshooters is that the helium leakage and the thrusters in query are situated within the Starliner’s drum-shaped service module, which is connected to the bottom of the crew capsule. The service module is jettisoned prior to re-entry and burns up within the environment.
Given that engineers won’t be able to look at the precise {hardware} after the very fact, NASA and Boeing managers need to give them as a lot time as doable to assessment telemetry, to proceed testing and to polish contingency eventualities in case extra issues present up after undocking.
They additionally need to study as a lot as doable about what may be wanted to forestall related issues in downstream flights. NASA managers had been hoping to certify the Starliner for operational crew rotation flights to the house station beginning early subsequent yr, but it surely’s not but clear if that is stays a practical purpose.
In any case, Stich mentioned the Starliner “is performing well in orbit while docked to the space station.”
United Launch Alliance
“We are strategically using the extra time to clear a path for some critical station activities while completing readiness for Butch and Suni’s return on Starliner, and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we will want to make for post-certification missions.”
Already operating 4 years delayed, the Starliner was launched June 5, a month later than deliberate due to minor issues with its Atlas 5 rocket, hassle with a countdown laptop and due to an preliminary helium leak within the system used to pressurize the capsule’s thrusters.
NASA and Boeing managers determined the leak was too small to pose a security risk and the ship was cleared for launch. Once in orbit and on the way in which to the house station, nonetheless, 4 extra helium leaks developed and the Starliner’s flight laptop took seven maneuvering jets offline when the telemetry didn’t match pre-launch expectations.
One thruster was deemed unusable going ahead, however the others had been efficiently take a look at fired final Saturday. That “hot-fire” take a look at gave engineers confidence the jets wanted for post-undocking maneuvers and the essential de-orbit “burn” will work as wanted to drop the ship out of orbit for re-entry.
Likewise, officers mentioned they had been assured the helium leaks might be managed even when a number of will get worse after undocking. Only seven hours of helium is required for the return to Earth, and the Starliner has greater than 10 instances that quantity left on board.