Posted on 09/24/2021 4:47:02 AM PDT by BenLurkin
...two months after it first discovered an issue with some of the valves in the spacecraft’s service module, the company still doesn’t know with 100 percent certainty what caused 13 of those valves to remain shut when they should have been open...
...the company might even have to swap out the spacecraft’s service module for a new one...
“We got very close to launch without having identified the valve problem,” said George Nield, a panel member who previously oversaw the Federal Aviation Administration’s office of commercial space transportation. “Are there any changes to hardware inspection, testing, vehicle processing or checkout that would minimize the chances of that happening in the future?”
He also said there “were some rather significant differences in how several safety issues were assessed between NASA and Boeing” during the flight readiness reviews.
Boeing’s first flight attempt, in December 2019, suffered a series of problems due to software and communications issues that prevented the spacecraft from docking with the station and forcing controllers to shoot software fixes to the capsule in midflight
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Yes, SpaceX has been much more impressive than Blue Origin. But at least Blue Origin’s capsule has gone further than Boeing’s.”
Their first test achieved orbit.
“The Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test (also known as Boe-OFT) was the first orbital mission of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, conducted by Boeing as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission was planned to be an eight-day test flight of the spacecraft, involving a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station (ISS), and a landing in the western United States. The mission was launched on 20 December 2019 at 11:36:43 UTC or 06:36:43 AM EST, however an issue with the spacecraft’s Mission Elapsed Time (MET) clock occurred 31 minutes into flight. This anomaly caused the spacecraft to burn into an incorrect orbit, preventing a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was reduced to just two days, with the spacecraft successfully landing at White Sands Space Harbor on 22 December 2019”
I should have been more specific: manned flight.
Yeah I got to admit I’m surprised they don’t know what did or failed to happen more or less when it happened. I’m shocked if they’re truly scratching their heads mystified this level of engineering. I’d have guessed that the thing would HAVE to audit itself at every level in the way you describe.
The car CO’s seem to just pile on code as they need it. Mopar wound up with a transmission problem that was, it turned out, being caused by…the dome light! It’d be a bitch if this sort of thing is happening with Starliners and such.
“I should have been more specific: manned flight.”
People are just a type of cargo in spacecraft that control themselves.
Blue origin will launch Captain Kirk into orbit in October!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10026045/William-Shatner-going-SPACE-Jeff-Bezos-oldest-man-space.html
Bad ground...
Sure looks good for self driving cars and big rigs... Lot more where this came from.
Always a possibility... Says the programmer that once turned a very expensive relay bank into a doorbell buzzer, burning through a fair portion of the hardware cycle life in a few moments....
It doesn’t sound to me like a software or electrical problem
“According to NASA’s chief of human spaceflight operations, Kathy Lueders, engineers have been gathering data about the “dry” side of the valves. The hope is the team will be able to determine the cause and find a fix for the stuck valves from this limited perspective. However, it may become necessary to look at the internal or “wet” side of the valves, and that will mean going through the tedious process of disassembling the propulsion system. “
Do not mention Blue Origin in a sentence with SpaceX. SpaceX is getting it done. Blue Origin not so much.
If I am not mistaken SLS (Space Launch System) is a NASA project not a Boeing project. And again IIANM SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket is the backup plan for SLS.
True, Boeing never recovered from merging with MacDac.
“If I am not mistaken SLS (Space Launch System) is a NASA project not a Boeing project.”
It is, but it will be obsoleted by the SpaceX Starship.
“And again IIANM SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket is the backup plan for SLS.”
Not the Falcon Heavy, but the Starship.
SLS is obsolete. And many years behind schedule.
I disagree and it is not many years behind schedule. It is pretty much on schedule. Now SpaceX might make it obsolete, but that has not yet happened.
They think it was caused by their capsule getting rained on before the launch attempt
“John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s commercial crew program, said on the media call that the leading cause of the valve problem is that nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), the oxidizer used for Starliner’s thrusters, permeated Teflon seals in the valves. That NTO interacted with moisture on the “dry” side of the valve, creating nitric acid. The acid corroded the valves, causing them to stick in the closed position.”
I can’t believe that they haven’t replaced all the valves by now.
“I disagree and it is not many years behind schedule. It is pretty much on schedule.”
“The intended uncrewed first flight of SLS has slipped multiple times: originally from late 2016 to October 2017, then to November 2018, then to 2019, then to June 2020, then to April 2021, to November 2021, and then to some time between November 2021 and March 2022.”
Back in 2015 I worked on the Test Plan for the Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, the first scheduled SLS flight.
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