Boeing and NASA engineers spent much of the last month conducting ground tests on a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) booster to get a better idea of what went wrong during the Starliner’s active flight in early June, and they have finally called it quits. the past. week. In its last update, said teams were able to replicate the thrust degradation experienced by Starliner and are now reviewing all the data. But the date of the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams is still uncertain – NASA and Boeing have only said that they will make the trip “in the coming weeks”.
In testing at the White Sands test facility in New Mexico, teams simulated the conditions of the Starliner’s recent flight, putting the control system’s thruster “through one of the most stressful launch-to-docking firing sequences, with more than 1,000 pulses to simulate CFT [Crew Flight Test] conditions,” according to Boeing. They also tested undocking and orbit scenarios, which Starliner will experience on the way home. After collecting terabytes of data from those tests, the teams performed additional, more aggressive tests to “see if we could more closely simulate the higher thermal conditions the boosters experienced during flight,” said Dan Niedermaier, a Boeing engineer for the tests. of the propellants.
Engineers are in the process of “engine disassembly and inspections,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said Thursday. Following your analysis, NASA says there will be a review of the agency’s flight test readiness to determine whether the Starliner is in good shape to bring astronauts back. NASA and Boeing said they will release more information at a conference in the coming days.
