Posted on 09/07/2024 4:39:03 AM PDT by george76
Starliner has finally come home, more than three months after it launched on a planned 10-day mission..
Starliner's long space odyssey is over.
The Boeing capsule, named Calypso, returned to Earth early this morning (Sept. 7), touching down in the New Mexico desert at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT; 11:01 p.m. local time on Sept. 6).
"Great landing of Calyspo!" NASA astronaut Suni Williams said on the agency's webcast. "I don't think that could have gone better."
The landing was long-delayed, coming more than three months into an orbital mission originally expected to last about 10 days. And, while Starliner launched with two NASA astronauts aboard — Williams and Butch Wilmore — nobody rode it home.
It wasn't supposed to end like this.
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A crucial test flight..
The roots of the just-completed mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), go back a decade. In 2014, NASA gave SpaceX and Boeing multibillion-dollar contracts to finish work on their astronaut taxis — capsules known as Crew Dragon and Starliner, respectively.
The agency wanted one or both of those vehicles to start flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017, reestablishing a homegrown orbital human spaceflight capability — something the U.S. had lacked since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
...
Neither capsule hit that ambitious target. SpaceX's first astronaut mission, a test flight to the ISS called Demo-2, lifted off in May 2020. Starliner's crewed debut was CFT, which launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, sending Williams and Wilmore to the orbiting lab for a planned eight-day stay.
CFT had been slated to fly last year, but it was delayed to deal with parachute issues and to remove large amounts of insulating tape from the capsule's wiring system. (Analsyes determined that the tape was flammable and thus posed a safety risk.)
The mission encountered issues more recently as well. A planned May 25 launch attempt was scrubbed, for example, after team members noticed a small helium leak in Starliner's service module. More helium leaks popped up after launch, as Starliner chased the ISS down in orbit. And, more concerningly, the capsule experienced propulsion problems: Five of its 28 reaction control system (RCS) thrusters conked out not long after liftoff.
The thruster problems scuttled Starliner's first ISS docking attempt on June 6. The capsule succeeded on its second try that day, and team members eventually brought four of the five faulty thrusters back online. But the issue loomed large over the rest of the mission.
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A tough decision..
NASA extended CFT's orbital stay repeatedly, giving mission team members more time to analyze and troubleshoot the thruster problems. Such work included modeling studies and testing both in space (with Starliner) and on the ground (with a Starliner RCS thruster at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico).
Ultimately, NASA concluded that bringing Williams and Wilmore home on Starliner posed an unacceptable safety risk.
"The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Aug. 24, the day the agency announced the news.
Williams and Wilmore will stay aboard the ISS until February, when they'll hitch a ride home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon — the one flying the company's Crew-9 mission, which is set to lift off later this month. To make room for them, Crew-9 will lift off with two astronauts instead of the usual four.
Starliner, meanwhile, was packed up for an uncrewed return to Earth. Among the gear that it carried home were the "Boeing Blue" spacesuits that Williams and Wilmore wore aboard the capsule. The astronauts have no need for them now.
"The suits are not compatible," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said during a press conference on Wednesday (Sept. 4). "So the Starliner suits would not work in Dragon, and vice versa."
Sticking the landing..
Starliner undocked from the ISS on Friday (Sept. 6) at 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT) as planned. It performed a series of burns to set itself up for the uncrewed landing, which occurred under parachutes in New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor just after midnight today.
Everything went well.
"I'm happy to report that Starliner did really well today in the undocking, reentry and landing sequence," Stich told reporters after the touchdown. "It was a bullseye landing, a great landing out at White Sands."
He added that Wilmore and Williams would have been fine if they'd been aboard the capsule. "It would have been a safe, successful landing with the crew on board," Stich said. But he added that NASA's decision to err on the side of safety with the data they had on hand before landing still stands: "I think we made the right decision."
Boeing representatives did not participate in the post-landing briefing, instead ceding mission representation to NASA, the space agency said. But Boeing did release a statement shortly after Starliner's return.
"I want to recognize the work the Starliner teams did to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, reentry and landing," Mark Nappi, Boeing's vice president and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, said in the statement. "We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program."
This was the third touchdown overall for Starliner, by the way. The capsule also flew two uncrewed test flights to the ISS, one in December 2019 and one in May 2022. Starliner failed to meet up with the orbiting lab on the first flight after suffering several glitches. The second uncrewed mission was a success, though Starliner experienced some thruster issues on that flight as well. (These were a different set, associated not with the RCS but with Starliner's orbital maneuvering and control system.)
A cloudy future..
Boeing and NASA had hoped that CFT would pave the way for Starliner's certification, allowing the capsule to begin flying six-month-long astronaut missions to the ISS.
The first such operational flight, Starliner-1, had been targeted for February 2025. That launch has already been pushed back, however, to August 2025 at the earliest. And it's unclear at the moment if Starliner will be certified by then — or what additional tests, if any, NASA will require before certification can occur.
"I think what we need to do now is really lay out the overall plan, which we have not had time to do," Stich said in the Sept. 4 press conference.
"We haven't, because the teams have been so focused on this flight, laying out that overall search strategy, the overall amount of work we've got to go do," he added. "And then when we do that, we'll have a better understanding of, When can we certify the vehicle, and when can we resume flights?"
Crew Dragon, meanwhile, was certified shortly after Demo-2's successful conclusion in 2020. The SpaceX vehicle is now gearing up for its ninth operational astronaut flight to the ISS for NASA. (That would be Crew-9, as the name suggests.)
SpaceX has also flown a handful of private crewed missions to the station, as well as the Inspiration4 astronaut flight to Earth orbit, which did not meet up with the orbiting lab. And it's preparing to launch Polaris Dawn, another free-flying commercial astronaut mission, which aims to conduct the first-ever private spacewalk.
I watched the spacex launch video just a day or so ago.
Shortly after liftoff the picture split into two side by sides. we were thus given the opportunity to see two live space events.
The first stage separated and was in one view while the main rocket continued on the other.
We were thus able to watch as the first stage returned to earth under constant and complete control. We saw it actually land precisely as scheduled, on a pad near the launch site and available for the next flight.
Mean while on the second screen we could monitor the constant increase in speed and altitude until it reached the 150 kilometer orbital altitude where it leveled off.
This spectacular double success was the 23rd I think we were told. And it was accomplished by a private company who has spectacularly bested what were said to be the best in the world.
Sorry dude. It left without you.
I think that in the meantime, Boeing sold the company that created the Starliner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents
19 astronauts (18 US, 1 Israeli)
Even the Russians lost cosmonauts (4) To me, it’s understandable that NASA didn’t gamble with the 2 astronauts’ lives. I can’t imagine the firestorm that NASA would be engulfed in.
I have no love for the NASA administrator, Bill Nelson (He’s a former astronaut) and the political wokeness that has infiltrated the Space Agency today.
Back in the glory days of NASA, not only the astronauts, but the the people running the Space Agency had The Right Stuff.
Why didn’t they keep Starlink up there as a backup, in case SpaceX develops an unforeseen problem that delays its launch even unacceptably later?
I lost my bet. Figured it would not make it back.
3) Change name of spacecraft to Collapso.
Glad to see NASA err on the side of caution.
Last I heard, they were sending two suits up.
Just saw a real world demonstration over the sickness of our government being run by delusional ideologues.
I was sent to detention when I returned to my homeroom...like I cared...All girl catholic school...Nuns loved their power!!
One of the few decisions they have made right, lately.
In 2014, NASA gave SpaceX and Boeing multibillion-dollar contracts to finish work on their astronaut taxis — capsules known as Crew Dragon and Starliner, respectively... SpaceX's first astronaut mission, a test flight to the ISS called Demo-2, lifted off in May 2020. Starliner's crewed debut was... on June 5 [2024].
Boeing can get it done, just will need more time and more & more money, and thanks to corrupticrats, will get it. In three more years they'll have reached man-rating, and in a mere ten years (and billion$ more) will have figured out reusability.
Within two or three years, SpaceX will have done an uncrewed and then a crewed lunar orbital mission, landed a crew on the Moon and returned them to Earth, and within five years will have dropped an autonomous robot onto Mars.
Within ten years, SpaceX will have landed humans on Mars -- assuming the Creep State hasn't put him behind bars.
:^) Dehydrated Spaghetti-Ohs! Mmm! I think the pantry is well stocked and good for months.
The two stranded astronauts put their blue Boeing suits into the Starliner before it got buttoned up and sent back down. Crew-9 will arrive with their SpaceX suits to wear during reentry.
It will also have only two passengers, the pilot and the cosmonaut needed in the rotation to maintain the Russian systems, because Crew Dragon is now the preferred ride.
From what I’ve heard Boeing used to use their own people as president or chairman of the board. Now they use people that were hired from outside to run the company. I wonder if that was a good idea?
Human spaceflight is a huge waste of time and money when robots do it a billion times faster and cheaper
We could already be drilling the ice moons and hollowing out asteroids for mining and as spacecraft if we eliminated weak, puny, needy meatbag humans.
Boeing encountered a problem, but they succeeded in uploading new software to fix the docking problem, and they also successfully returned the capsule to earth.
Space flight is HARD, and while not by any measure a flawless mission, their team recovered from set backs to achieve a measure of success.
I have no problem with that, except give the politicians enough time, and they’ll find SOME way to come up with DEI for robots. Add in AI, and there ya go.
Put a camera on it and send a thousand spacecraft out to explore so I can see it in my lifetime
I don’t care about this “oh, it’s so romantic, just like the movies, when humans do it” crap.
Robots rule space, weepy human lovers need to get out of the way and let machines do space
I demand 100 new flights a year, by machine to explore NEW places, not boring low earth orbit nonsense from the past
I agree.
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