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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was poised to mark its crowning achievement this month: carrying two NASA astronauts on a round trip to the International Space Station, proving that the long-delayed and over-budget capsule is ready for the task.
Starliner is halfway to that goal.
But the two veteran astronauts piloting this test flight are now in a temporary position – extending their stay aboard the space station for a second time, while engineers on the ground struggle to learn more about the problems that plagued the first leg of their journey. .
Spaceflight veterans Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the space station aboard the Starliner on June 6. NASA initially projected his stay would last about a week.
But the problems the vehicle faced along the way, including helium leaks and thrusters that abruptly stopped working, have raised questions about what the second half of the mission will look like.
Williams and Wilmore will now return no earlier than June 26, NASA announced Tuesday, extending their mission to at least 20 days as engineers race to get a better understanding of the spacecraft’s issues while it is safely attached to the station. space.
Officials said there is no reason to believe Starliner won’t be able to bring astronauts home, although “we really want to work through the rest of the data,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. a Tuesday. Press conference.
Meanwhile, Boeing sought to frame the mission as a success and a learning opportunity, although it left the Starliner team struggling with the “unplanned” side of the mission, as Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and Starliner program manager, said. put it on Tuesday.
It is not uncommon for astronauts unexpectedly extend your stay aboard the space station – for days, weeks or even months. (NASA also said Starliner could spend up to 45 days in the orbiting laboratory if necessary, according to Stich.)
But the situation creates a moment of uncertainty and embarrassment that adds to a long list of similar mistakes made by the Boeing Starliner program, which is already years behind schedule. This also adds to the chorus of unfavorable news that has followed Boeing as a company for some time.
A nail-biting ending
Boeing and NASA engineers said they are opting to leave Starliner — and with it, Williams and Wilmore — aboard the station longer than expected, primarily to conduct additional analysis. The helium leaks and thruster problems occurred in a part of the vehicle that was not intended to survive the trip home from space, so mission teams are delaying the spacecraft’s return as part of a last-ditch effort to learn everything they can. about what went wrong. .
Danger arises whenever a spacecraft returns home from orbit. It is perhaps the most dangerous part of any mission to space.
The journey will require the Starliner to reach Earth’s thick atmosphere while traveling at more than 22 times the speed of sound. The process will heat the spacecraft’s exterior to about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, a set of parachutes — which Boeing redesigned and tested in January — should safely slow the capsule before it reaches dry land. (Starliner will be the first U.S.-made capsule to parachute into a landing on the ground instead of diving into the ocean. Boeing hopes this approach will make it easier to recover and refurbish the Starliner after flight.)
A series of setbacks
Starliner’s journey to this historic crewed test mission began in 2014, when NASA tapped Boeing and SpaceX to develop a spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.
At the time, Boeing was seen as the stalwart aerospace giant likely to get the job done first, while SpaceX was the unpredictable newcomer.
In the last decade, however, the tides have changed.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft safely completed its first crewed mission — which appeared to have gone smoothly — in 2020. And the vehicle has been regularly transporting astronauts and paying customers ever since.
The two astronauts who piloted the Crew Dragon’s maiden flight – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – also remained aboard the space station longer than expected, clocking in at over 60 days rather than the brief period expected on such test flights. .
But Hurley and Behnken’s stay was extended so the astronauts could help with daily activities aboard the space station, which at the time was understaffed. The extension was not directly related to specific software or hardware issues with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Spacecraft problems, on the other hand, have hampered Boeing’s Starliner program at virtually every step of the way. The vehicle faced years of delays, setbacks and additional expenses that cost the company more than a billion dollars, according to public financial records.
The Starliner’s first test mission, carried out without a crew in late 2019, was fraught with errors. The vehicle failed in orbit, a symptom of software problems that included a coding error that set the internal clock to 11 hours.
One second unmanned flight test in 2022 discovered additional software problems and problems with some of the vehicle’s powertrains.
NASA program manager Stich indicated during a June 6 meeting Press conference that it is possible that engineers have not completely resolved these issues as of 2022.
“We thought we had solved this problem,” Stich said, adding, “I think we are missing something fundamental that is happening inside the thruster.”
Michael Lembeck, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who was a consultant to Boeing’s spaceflight division from 2009 to 2014, told CNN that it would be difficult to determine whether additional ground tests may have detected the thruster problems. the hand.
But Lembeck emphasized that evaluating the success of this test mission is not as simple as directly comparing it to SpaceX’s inaugural crewed Crew Dragon test flight.
For example, he said, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule — a directorial predecessor to Crew Dragon — completed more than a decade of unmanned cargo missions to the space station before Crew Dragon took flight.
“SpaceX had a head start with the cargo program,” Lembeck said. “I think they have an advantage that Boeing didn’t have. Boeing is having to build a crew vehicle from scratch.”
However, if this Starliner test mission encounters additional setbacks, it could put Boeing in a situation where it must rely on its rival to get Williams and Wilmore home.
“The embarrassing support is that a Crew Dragon would have to go and rescue the astronauts,” Lembeck said. The spacecraft “could be sent out with two crew and sent back with four – and that would probably be the way home.”
Boeing’s Broader Problems
Boeing executives have repeatedly sought to make clear that the Starliner program operates independently of other units of the company — including the commercial aircraft division that has been at the center of scandals for years.
“We have humans flying this vehicle. We always take this very seriously,” said Nappi during a news briefing in April, before the Starliner took off.
Nappi at the time also stated that the Starliner team was operating at “maximum performance” and “really looking forward to executing” a safe mission.
When asked about that claim on Tuesday, Stich, the NASA executive, said that Boeing and NASA officials had always expected to encounter additional issues that needed to be resolved during this test flight.
Williams alluded to this expectation during a press conference before flightsaying, “We always find things and we will continually find things.
“Not everything will be absolutely perfect while we fly the spacecraft. … We feel very safe and comfortable with the way this spacecraft flies and we have backup procedures in case we need them,” Williams said.
Stitch, however, acknowledged Tuesday that Boeing and NASA might have been able to avoid some of the problems Starliner encountered: “Maybe we could have done different tests on the ground to characterize some of the (propellant issues) before the launch. time,” he said.
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