Starliner return delayed to July

" NASA and Boeing have pushed back the return of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station until at least early July to continue studies of propulsion system problems.

In a statement issued late June 21, NASA announced it was no longer proceeding with plans announced three days earlier to have Starliner depart the station June 25, landing at White Sands, New Mexico early June 26, to complete the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board.

Unlike three previous delays, NASA did not disclose a new departure date for Starliner. Instead, NASA stated only that it is “evaluating future return opportunities” for the spacecraft after a scheduled spacewalk July 2, the second of a pair of spacewalks planned at the ISS.

“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said in the statement. “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.”

He added that NASA now planned to carry out an agency-level review of Starliner before its departure “given the duration of the mission.” Starliner was scheduled to spend only eight days at the station but the latest delay means it will spend close to a month there."



NASA update at noon EDT on 18 June 2024:




1)  Preparation to leave the ISS info:




2)  Starliner entry and landing:




3)  Launch info below:

Source

"NASA is five weeks away from putting astronauts aboard a new commercial crew capsule. May 6 (scrub on 6 May)  5 June 2024  is the target launch date for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on the Crew Flight Test-1 (CFT-1) mission the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams on board.

The capsule will launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Launch date 5 June 2024, 10:52 AM EDT

Launch livestream:



Rendezvous and docking livestream:



ULA livestream:



Probably also on NASA TV

Launch visibility:

[img]https://img.24live.co/event/3520105635873268419/20240502191807_748672.jpeg[/img

Good luck with that. They are going to need it.

Glad I'm not taking that ride.

We shall see

Hopefully Boeing tightened the door bolts on this one.

giving the chance, wouldn't even hesitate to hop on that flight

I just can't believe an Apollo-esq capsule is still the best Boeing can do since 1970. I know the shuttle had its issues, but it seems crazy that teardrop capsules are the norm still.

(I know alot of form follows function, and i am happy that anything is still going to space.. just still).

I have little confidence in boeing anymore.

Boeing

Not the Brand I'd have confidence in.

In before the explosion

They did a bunch of analysis and determined that the Apollo capsule was just about the optimum design - The Apollo team got an amazing amount of things right, mostly using slide rules and trial and error.

Roosian powered.

That's nuts !

Or lack of them.

When you're trying to get to orbit it's important to keep weight to an absolute minimum. The Shuttle had landing gear which was only useful when landing and for the rest of the flight was a significant weight penalty.

Physics hasn't changed since the 50s and they looked at these problems pretty rigorously back in those days. Barring some incredible advances in materials technology anything coming back from orbit is going to have a shape like a well rounded stone.

Not for much longer. Fortunately we have the Vulcan rocket with BO engines coming online to replace Atlas as opposed to just leaving things dangling in the wind.

They will be begging for SpaceX to come back after this...

There were a lot of compromises to accommodate that mission. Which was never done because it was stupid. (Kinda hard to do a Shuttle launch, reentry and recovery in secret.) I recall hearing that Nixon was going to axe funding entirely if they hadn't told him about that possibility.

Live and learn I suppose.

There is also NASA's reluctance for change.

The moon missions using SpaceX still uses NASA's capsule.

"Just see you don't screw the pooch."
_____

Gene Kranz - Chief Flight Director



_______

Boeing S-IC stage
atop five Rocketdyne F1 engines

Most expensive two Words in spaceflight: Man Rated
Saturn V - perfect operational record

I would not want to be onboard.

Boeing?

Same, you would not find me volunteering to take it. Not with those two in charge.

An even more phallic looking rocket than New Shepard.

oops

There used to be three scheduled to go on it.  One came up with an excuse at least a year ago.

With two strap-ons.

Lol. For real?

Had a look at all the issues made public.

December 2019 - OFT-1 Software issues cause primary mission failure and "high visibility close call"
An issue with the spacecraft's Mission Elapsed Time (MET) clock occurred 31 minutes into flight. Due to intermittent space-to-ground communication issues flight controllers could not correct the issue.[13] This anomaly caused the spacecraft's Orbital Maneuvering Thrusters (OMT) to burn into an incorrect orbit causing too much propellant to be burned. This precluded a rendezvous and docking with the ISS.

After the mission, it was revealed that another critical software bug was found in flight, which could have resulted in the service module bumping back into Starliner after separation. The bug was fixed two hours before the capsule re-entered. Had the bug not been discovered and fixed, it may have damaged Starliner and prevented a safe landing.[15] Additionally, it was determined that had the first anomaly not occurred, the second would not have been detected.[16]

The mission was declared a "high visibility close call" as there were two times where the spacecraft could have been lost. NASA found factors internally that led to the anomalies such as the oversight over software.[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Orbital_Flight_Test

August 2021 - OFT-2 Valve failures cause scrub

Due to unexpected valve position indications in the Starliner propulsion system, the launch was further delayed to later in August while engineering teams investigated the problem. As a result, the Atlas V was rolled back to the VIF again for further testing.

Boeing decided to return the spacecraft back to the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility in order to perform a deeper-level troubleshooting of the thirteen propulsion system valves, causing the launch to be delayed for another year.

May 2022 - OFT-2 Re-launch attempt - 2 thruster failures on orbit, and troubleshoot docking interface issues

After completing assembly of the rocket again at ULA's VIF, the launch took place on 19 May 2022 at 22:54 UTC, and completed the Orbital Insertion Burn at 31 minutes into the mission. During the Orbit Insertion Burn, two OMAC thrusters out of the twelve thrusters in the service module failed shortly after ignition, but Boeing says it does not pose a threat as on-board flight control system took over the situation and switched to backup thrusters to complete the burn successfully, and Starliner reached a good orbit.

Docking took place after a delay of about one hour, due to a need to retract and re-extend the ring clamp on its NDS docking interface.

On 25 May at 18:36 UTC, Starliner undocked from the ISS and successfully landed in White Sands, New Mexico at 22:49 UTC.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Orbital_Flight_Test_2

June 2023 - Boeing Crewed Flight Test - Boeing stands down prior to it's July launch to focus on parachute connector link issues and flammable wiring harness tape.

During a normal flight, these substandard links would not be an issue. But Starliner's parachute system is designed to land a crew safely in case one of the three parachutes fails. However, due to the lower failure load limit with these soft links, if one parachute fails, it's possible the lines between the spacecraft and its remaining two parachutes would snap due to the extra strain.

The second issue involves P-213 glass cloth tape that is wrapped around wiring harnesses throughout the vehicle. These cables run everywhere, and Nappi said there are hundreds of feet of these wiring harnesses. The tape is intended to protect the wiring from nicks. However, during recent tests, it was discovered that under certain circumstances possible in flight, this tape is flammable. https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/06/boeing-stands-down-from-starliner-launch-to-address-recently-found-problems/

-----------

And here we are a year after the stand down with a launch date finally for a 3rd launch after nearly a decade in development.

When I last visited the museum in Huntsville, in the building where the Saturn V hardware is suspended horizontally overhead, there was a little propaganda advertisement infographic from ULA detailing future plans.

It said that astronauts would start flying on Atlas/Starliner to the ISS in 2017.

May 1? Reasonable enough!

Which decade are they shooting for?

Yeah, they all seem to be overconfident when it comes to timelines.

SpaceX and Boeing were both awarded the Commercial Crew/Cargo contract back in 2014 and they were supposed to alternate missions carrying crew.  SpaceX launched the first test Dragon2 demo flight in March 2019 9 months ahead of the Starliner. They had the spectacular anomaly in May 2019 that destroyed the Dragon2 on the test stand. https://youtu.be/xe4ee56aHSg?si=oIOIGxVMRrP4jGDs  Followed by the manned test flight in May 2020.

Dragon2 has launched 23 times mainly carrying cargo, carried crew on 8 of those missions, and they have 7 vehicles in active use.

If there are any motivated employees left at Boeing working on the Starliner that must suck to be so far behind.

Have I lied to or misled you in the last 15 minutes?     I will look for the guys name.

This may be the guy:

"Christopher Ferguson is a native of Philadelphia. He is a retired Navy captain, who piloted space shuttle Atlantis for STS-115, and commanded shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 and Atlantis for the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-135. He retired from NASA in 2011 and has been an integral part of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner program."

Chris Ferguson, Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke were slated to be the first flight.

Chris Ferguson bailed about 6 months after the investigation was complete on OFT-1 was complete.
https://spacenews.com/boeing-astronaut-chris-ferguson-withdraws-from-starliner-test-flight/#:~:text=Boeing%20astronaut%20Chris%20Ferguson%20withdraws%20from%20Starliner%20test%20flight,-Jeff%20Foust%20October&text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%94%20Chris%20Ferguson%2C%20the%20former,7

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are the current pilot and commander and Mike Finke is listed as backup pilot.  Nicole Mann is not listed as Starliner crew. https://www.boeing.com/space/starliner/launch/crew.html  She instead flew on a Crew Dragon flight.

So Boeing with quality control issues plus diversity hires running NASA.....

What could possibly go wrong?

I wouldn’t fly on a Boeing capsule, but why not just adapt a collar and put it on a SpaceX rocket? They are vastly superior to anything else, safer too. Oh, and reusable as well, because they turn around and land themselves.

Edited- To offer just as little with less words.

There may be major technical reasons for that. I think the Starliner might be too heavy? But Northrop-Grumman did something kinda like this recently with their Cygnus resupply vehicle.

Boeing has already reached out to SpaceX for help with the parachutes on this contraption. Starliner foing to orbit on a F-9 is probably a fridge too far for Boeing at the moment.

But give it a couple years and we will see what happens.

Starship will be man rated before this shit every flies

No it won't

Starliner will be fine.

I was scanning past articles and at one time the expected launch date was 2018.  I see even that was a delay.

I dunno man, Boeing isn't the same company it used to be.

Just like Starship, but Artemis beat it by a mile and didn't blow up over and over again.

You do know the history of Starliner, right?

FPNI

Bad wiring.  

Bad software.

Bad parachute.  

Bad valves.  

It's like the lunar shuttle that almost flew into the sun.  

But it's all good now.  

If NASA was remotely not corrupt, Boeing should be flying a second unmanned demo.