Boeing’s Starliner mission will make a third attempt to launch its first manned flight test this Wednesday (5), a milestone that has been planned for a decade.
The new spacecraft’s maiden voyage with humans on board is scheduled to lift off atop an Atlas V rocket at 11:52 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Watch the live stream on NASA website (United States space agency). See also the video below.
Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will board the Starliner capsule on a journey to the International Space Station.
Weather conditions are 90% favorable for launch Wednesday morning, with the only concern being cumulus clouds, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron. If the takeoff does not occur this Wednesday, there is another opportunity at 10:29 am ET (11:29 am Brasília time) on Thursday (6), according to NASA.
The mission, known as the Crew Flight Test, is the culmination of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and expand the United States’ options for transporting astronauts to the space station under the Commercial Crew Program. from NASA. The federal agency’s initiative aims to foster collaboration with private industry partners.
If successful, the flight will mark just the sixth maiden journey of a manned spacecraft in U.S. history, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted at a press conference in May.
“It started with Mercury, then Gemini, then Apollo, the space shuttle, then (SpaceX’s) Dragon — and now Starliner,” Nelson said.
Williams will also make history as the first woman to fly such a mission.
Historic flight with ambitious goals
If the Starliner lifts off successfully, astronauts will spend just over 24 hours traveling to the space station.
After docking around 12:15 p.m. ET (11:15 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, Williams and Wilmore are expected to spend eight days living in the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board.
Aboard Starliner is a crucial pump needed to repair the space station’s urine processing system, which failed on May 29.
“That urine processor takes all of the crew’s urine and processes it in the first step of a water recovery system,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager. “It then sends it to a water processor that turns it into drinking water. The station is really designed to be a closed loop.”
Now, urine has to be stored onboard in containers, so Starliner’s early arrival at the space station couldn’t come at a better time.
Astronauts will test several aspects of Starliner’s capabilities, including the performance of the spacecraft’s thrusters, how their spacesuits work in the capsule, and manual piloting should the crew need to override the spacecraft’s autopilot.
Williams and Wilmore will also test Starliner’s “safe haven” capability, designed to provide space station crew with shelter in case of trouble, according to Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, during a press conference on March 31. of May.
When it’s time to return home, the astronauts will return using the same Starliner capsule and land by parachute at one of several designated locations in the southwestern United States.
Years of development, test flight problems and other costly setbacks have delayed Starliner’s path to the launch pad. Meanwhile, Boeing’s competitor in NASA’s Commercial Crew program — SpaceX — has become the transportation provider of choice for the space agency’s astronauts.
This mission could be the last major milestone before NASA considers Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft ready for routine operations to carry astronauts and cargo to the space station.
Troubleshooting weeks
Several problems caused the cancellation of previous manned launch attempts, on May 6 and June 1.
Two hours before the May 6 launch attempt, engineers identified a problem with a valve in the second stage, or upper part, of the Atlas V rocket, which was built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed. Martin. The entire stack, including the rocket and spacecraft, was removed from the launch pad for testing and repairs.
Teams also worked on a small helium leak in the spacecraft’s service module, a “design vulnerability” in the propulsion system, and evaluated the Starliner capsule’s parachutes.
The Starliner was just 3 minutes and 50 seconds away from liftoff Saturday afternoon when an automatic stop was triggered by the ground launch sequencer, or the computer that launches the rocket.
United Launch Alliance technicians and engineers evaluated ground support equipment over the weekend, examining three large computers housed inside a shelter at the base of the launch pad. Every computer is equal, providing triple redundancy to ensure the safe launch of manned missions.
“Imagine a big bookshelf that is a big computer where the functions of the computer as a controller are divided separately into individual cards or printed circuit boards,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, during a press conference Saturday. . “They’re all standalone, but together, it’s an integrated controller.”
Cards inside computers are responsible for different key systems that must occur before a launch, such as releasing screws on the base of the rocket so it can take off after ignition.
During the final four minutes before launch, all three computers must communicate and agree with each other. But during Saturday’s countdown, a card in one of the computers was six seconds slower in responding than the other two computers, indicating that something was not correct and triggering an automatic stop, according to Bruno.
Over the weekend, engineers evaluated the computers, their power source, and network communications between the computers. The team isolated the problem to a single ground power supply inside one of the computers, which supplies power to the computer cards responsible for key countdown events — including the rocket’s upper stage refueling valves, which also caused a problem. during the countdown, according to an update shared by NASA.
Starliner crews reported no signs of physical damage to the computer, which was removed and replaced with a spare. The other computers and their cards were also evaluated, and all are functioning normally as expected, according to the ULA team.
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