https://spacenews.com/nasa-prepares-for-starliner-return-from-iss/

NASA is preparing for the uncrewed return to Earth of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as the agency begins work on changes to the spacecraft to correct problems found during its test flight.

Agency officials confirmed at a Sept. 4 briefing plans for Starliner to undock from the station Sept. 6 at 6:04 p.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will quickly depart the vicinity of the ISS and perform a deorbit burn at 11:17 p.m. Eastern, setting up a landing of the Starliner crew capsule at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, at 12:03 a.m. Eastern Sept. 7.

Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said there were no technical issues being worked ahead of Starliner’s uncrewed departure to complete the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. Weather at White Sands was also forecast to be favorable, with a slight chance of rain the only concern. A backup landing opportunity is available Sept. 10.

Starliner’s departure from the station will be different from what was originally planned when it would have astronauts on board. The spacecraft will make a relatively rapid departure from the vicinity of the station, called a “breakout burn,” rather than a more gradual separation that would include a flyaround of the station.

The breakout burn allows for a faster departure from the station, said Anthony Vareha, the lead NASA space station flight director for the undocking, as well as accommodates the lack of crew on board. “Without the crew on board, able to take manual control if needed, there’s just a lot less variables that we need to account for when we do the breakout burn, and allows us to get the vehicle on a trajectory home that much sooner.”

Stich added that this trajectory puts “less stress” on reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, whose problems on approach to the station in June ultimately led to NASA’s decision to have the spacecraft return without a crew on board. “There’s a lot fewer thruster firings,” he said.

Once Starliner is away from the vicinity of the station, though, controllers to plan to test-fire several of the thrusters. Stich said engineers are still choosing what thrusters to test, but that they may involve some of the aft thrusters that experienced problems, including one that appeared to lose all thrust on approach to the station and did not recover in subsequent tests.

Those tests will be short pulses, lasting about 0.1 seconds, which will be enough to see how well they are performing. “The purpose of that is to continue to learn,” he said, collecting data in addition to tests performed while Starliner was docked to the station. “We really want to see how the thrusters perform and what the thrust levels exactly are after we undock and fire them for a little bit.”

The RCS thrusters will be used again to maintain attitude control during the deorbit burn, which is carried out by larger thrusters. The RCS thrusters will maneuver the spacecraft after that burn to separate the crew capsule from the service module and orient the capsule for reentry.

Assuming Starliner does safely return to Earth, NASA will turn its attention to changes to the spacecraft to address the thruster problems as well as helium leaks so that the vehicle can be certified for crew rotation missions.

“We’ve been entirely focused this summer on understanding what is happening on orbit, trying to decide if we could bring the crew back or not,” Stich said. “What we need to do now is really lay out the overall plan, which we have not had time to do.”

For the helium leaks, he said the leading explanation is that exposure to oxidizer vapors is causing a seal to degrade. “One of the things we’re looking at is a different material on the seal and maybe a different, slightly enlarged seal.”

He suggested, though, that the thruster problems could be resolved without major hardware changes. “Clearly, the way we fire the thrusters causes the thruster to overheat,” he said, causing a component called a poppet and made of Teflon to swell, constraining the flow of propellant to the thruster. “We need to understand what kinds of pulses in particular cause that swelling, the number of pulses.”

While he said nothing was ruled out, he indicated that NASA was leaning towards operational changes rather than replacing or modifying the thrusters themselves. “We know the thrusters are working well when we don’t command them in a manner that overheats them and gets the poppet to swell,” he said, noting that most thrusters worked without issue. “We know that the thruster is a viable thruster.”

“The easiest thing to do is to figure out how do we lower the temperature the thruster is operating at and maybe not firing it in a manner that causes it having this overheating phenomenon,” he said. He added later in the briefing that it could include modifications to structures on the service module called doghouses that contain the thrusters to better dissipate heat or cool thrusters.

At the briefing, NASA did not indicate how long post-flight reviews of Starliner and corrective actions might take, or if Boeing would be required to perform another test flight before certification. As with several previous briefings, Boeing was not a participant.

NASA officials, though, rejected reports that earlier meetings about whether to allow astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return on the spacecraft descended into yelling.

“I would not characterize it as heated,” Stich said, but acknowledged that there was “some tension in the room” as Boeing argued that Starliner was safe enough while NASA felt models of thruster performance were too uncertain. “I wouldn’t say it was a yelling screaming kind of meeting. It was a tense technical discussion.”


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Thread on the return of the astronauts.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Boeing-Starliner-return-crew-Space-X-Dragon-to-be-flown-by-Space-Force-Officer-Russian/5-2746471/

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Planned reentry path.




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Live Feed

Must be a solid chance of flaming disassembly if they aren't letting the men return.  Why not just launch it at the sun if they are that worried?

Don't want that shit missing its target and cometting down onto los alamos or some neighborhood.    

I still want Space X to put an Uber/Lyft/Taxi Medalion sign up on the Falcon that picks up the astronauts.  

Hell, I bet Uber might even PAY for that advertising.  I know, I know, that's not professional and won't happen.

Poll added

Burns up in atmosphere

I'm in the I think it will make it with a couple glitches camp.

But I'm also in agreement with nasa that there's no way they can risk these astronauts in something they know is glitchy just because Boeing is pissy about bad PR for their shit culture.

I would never trust that thing.  Aim it at something other than earth.  Maybe they could hit the sun if they get lucky.

Soooo, how bout dem astronauts?

another Starliner thread

Thanks for the bump.  

"I like trolling, but that's too far" -Elon Musk, Never

If I was Uber, I'd pay a couple million for the advertisement.

We just have to get Elon on board.

Hell, if I were CEO of Uber, I'd be offering the astronauts endorsement deals and even if they didn't take it, a year of free Uber rides. "I know what its like when your ride doesn't show up, so I use Uber whenever I can...."

Note, although Uber or Lyft would definitely be the best, Elon could just buy a NYC Taxi Medallion with change from his couch.  Arguably, it would be worth more having been in space...

Already covered in my FIRST thread on it plus a thread on viewing the re-entry.

It will probably be fine

The Earth sits at the bottom of a gravity well.  It is easy to deorbit and hit the Earth.  It would not have enough Delta V to escape Earth's gravity and hit the Sun.

Poetic justice if it veers way off course and craters into David Calhoun's (former Boeing CEO) house.

One way or another, I’d bet that thing enters earth’s atmosphere under less than full control. Godspeed to those astronauts.

There is no thrust available to send it to the sun.

Shooting it out of the solar system would take less power.

Assuming it doesn't kill the ISS as it leaves, probably this.

Just like flicking a cigarette butt out the window, not our problem anymore.

Be funny if it burns up.

My prediction is a few minor issues with thrusters on return but that it lands just fine. Not risking the astronauts on this return was the smart call.

I think it will be fine.

SpaceX is bringing them home.

Yes, it's definitely a small percentage of risk, but apparently someone at NASA said the same thing right before Columbia burned up over Texas and no one wants that label anymore.

Is this the 10th Stayliner thread or the 13th?  I've lost track.

OP didn't bother searching for shit.

I was under the impression they didn't upload the software for them to bring back the capsule remotely.

A casual search indicates 9 threads on this subject.

If the capsule comes back looking like it would have killed anyone aboard then we can presume there will be at least 4 more threads and probably another 3 when SpaceX brings the astronauts back.

I answered in the few glitches camp.....not sure if coming in hot and the complete outside looking like an ashtray or landing in the wrong time zone is considered a glitch but don't expect it to burn up completely and leave a crater.  I like the poll choices but think there should be one with "would they have lived if they came back on it or not".....

Looking to see who might broadcast this live.  I highly doubt that NASA and Boeing would put on a live show like they do for the launches.  Hope I am wrong on this....

Unfortunately, the earth is the only thing they can aim it at. They don't have enough delta-v to do anything but de-orbit.

not really.  They don't have enough delta-v to escape earth orbit, or even move up to a higher orbit.

Bill Nelson the former Florida democrat senator is running NASA with some basketball lady. The DEI is going to get these astronauts killed.

If you're the stuck astronauts, I know you want the craft to return safe, but at the same time, if it does, you'd be pissed!

Undocks, connection gets lost, veers off course, slams into the Kremlin at mach jesus, kills Putin.

All part of the CIA long game.


More likely it'll crumple into the ground somewhere in FL or TX.

Yeah the question is where will the debris field be.

I think it will make it back, but with issues that would have killed the passengers.

Hopefully, the damn thing does not ram the station.  They must be worried about it too if they modified the departure.  



I'm in the smoking hole camp.  I just hope it does not pass over my house on the way to White Sands.

If they have enough Delta V to deorbit under power, they have enough Delta V to raise it to a higher orbit.

They don't have the Delta V to yeet from the Solar System, and it's damn difficult to crash into the sun.  You have to significantly lower your orbital velocity to fall into the sun.

I like that cut of your jib sir.

 Have you ever noticed what direction rockets leaving Florida fly in?

It launched without the remote/autonomous mission module loaded.

Rather clearly, that has been uploaded since.

Sun might get annoyed.

LOL. You trust those bozos to upload the right version?

Will look like the intro to the 6 million dollar man.

Now you got me wondering: how much ground distance does something like that cover during reentry?

This is such a disgrace.