50 days after launch to ISS, Boeing's Starliner still has no landing date

[Admin]

Boeing's Starliner does not have a landing date yet, but the troubleshooting is making progress. Engineers plan a "hot fire" test this weekend to see how the spacecraft does in orbit.

50 days after launch to ISS, Boeing's Starliner still has no landing date : Read more

 

[newtons_laws]

Quote from the article: Starliner will conduct the test-fire of its 28-thruster reaction control system (RCS) on either Saturday (July 27) or Sunday (July 28) at the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and Boeing announced in a press conference today (July 25). Only 27 of the RCS thrusters will be used, however, as one previously was deemed unusable for the flight home.

"We're going to fire all those thrusters to a number of pulses, just to make sure before we undock, that whole system performs the way we expected and the way it did last time we checked it," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told reporters in a livestreamed press conference.

It would be interesting to know whether the orientation of the Starliner relative to the ISS is such that the firing of the thrusters will tend to raise or lower the orbit of the ISS. The ISS needs periodic reboosts to raise its altitude due to the gradual lowering of its orbit through the remaining very thin atmosphere at that altitude causing drag. Might as well get a slight rise in altitude from Starliner if they can.

 

[DanaBspaced]

Quote from the article: Starliner will conduct the test-fire of its 28-thruster reaction control system (RCS) on either Saturday (July 27) or Sunday (July 28) at the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and Boeing announced in a press conference today (July 25). Only 27 of the RCS thrusters will be used, however, as one previously was deemed unusable for the flight home.

"We're going to fire all those thrusters to a number of pulses, just to make sure before we undock, that whole system performs the way we expected and the way it did last time we checked it," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told reporters in a livestreamed press conference.

It would be interesting to know whether the orientation of the Starliner relative to the ISS is such that the firing of the thrusters will tend to raise or lower the orbit of the ISS. The ISS needs periodic reboosts to raise its altitude due to the gradual lowering of its orbit through the remaining very thin atmosphere at that altitude causing drag. Might as well get a slight rise in altitude from Starliner if they can.

They have enough trouble without thinking about boosting the ISS.

 

[DanaBspaced]

There have been serious safety issues everytime the hardware has flown. At this point I am more concerned about seal failing than overheated thrusters or helium leaks.

 

[newtons_laws]

Meanwhile Boeing admit they have so far made a loss of $1.6 billion on their fixed price Starliner contract, with the losses likely to rise further: https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/01/b...UDrBIIQCLhq6CLIF0IqX7EXVPisDDgjTfYmPgHDNUbPHV

 

[ZZTOP]

Boeing's Starliner does not have a landing date yet, but the troubleshooting is making progress. Engineers plan a "hot fire" test this weekend to see how the spacecraft does in orbit.

50 days after launch to ISS, Boeing's Starliner still has no landing date : Read more

There is no way to fix 5 Helium leaks in space and even if there were they would need more Helium and a way to get it into the tanks. The starliner is done, perhaps they can have it reenter the atmosphere on autopilot but if the astronauts die both NASA and Boeing are defunct and that will never happen. The question is can it undock itself?

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The helium leaks are not a threat to the quantity of gas needed for reentry - IF they don't occur elsewhere and/or get larger.

But, apparently, Boeing took the software used for the robotic flight 2 undocking and reentry out of the capsule computer, and putting it back in while the capsule is in orbit apparently would take a long time, See https://simpleflying.com/boeing-starliner-undocking-software-issue-nasa-astronaut-return/ , which says:

"Apparently, Starliner is not capable of undocking and re-entering the Earth autonomously and will need a flight software update for this, which could take up to four weeks. According to an Ars Technica report, three sources close to the matter told the publication that this feature was removed since the successful Orbital Flight Test 2 mission in May 2022, when it docked itself to the ISS."
and
"It isn't clear exactly why this was removed from the software, but budgetary constraints may have played a part."

[Where is the face-slap emoji when you need it?]

 

[ZZTOP]

The helium leaks are not a threat to the quantity of gas needed for reentry - IF they don't occur elsewhere and/or get larger.

But, apparently, Boeing took the software used for the robotic flight 2 undocking and reentry out of the capsule computer, and putting it back in while the capsule is in orbit apparently would take a long time, See https://simpleflying.com/boeing-starliner-undocking-software-issue-nasa-astronaut-return/ , which says:

"Apparently, Starliner is not capable of undocking and re-entering the Earth autonomously and will need a flight software update for this, which could take up to four weeks. According to an Ars Technica report, three sources close to the matter told the publication that this feature was removed since the successful Orbital Flight Test 2 mission in May 2022, when it docked itself to the ISS."
and
"It isn't clear exactly why this was removed from the software, but budgetary constraints may have played a part."

[Where is the face-slap emoji when you need it?]

There is no such thing as a gas leak on a spacecraft that is not a threat, and the longer they stay the less Helium is left, that is how leaks work. 60 plus days overdue home NASA already figured this out. That said chicken wire and duct tape can do wonders and I am sure that they have the equivalent of duct tape, not sure about the chicken wire though