Boeing Starliner crew get their ISS sleepover extended
- Reference: 1722003855
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/26/starliner_stay_onboard_iss/
- Source link:
During a [1]briefing on July 25, Mark Nappi, Vice President and Program Manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, commented on the emphasis placed on the eight-day mission duration. "It's my regret that we didn't just say we're going to stay up there until we get everything done that we want to," he said.
The mission has breezed past that eight-day duration and might exceed ten times that before managers finally decide to bring the Starliner crew back to Earth. NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said that a battery waiver to extend the duration Starliner could remain in space had been approved, doubling the time to 90 days. "That gives us a life, if we need it, all the way out through the early September time frame."
[2]
The team has been trying to understand the thruster issues experienced during the docking of the Starliner to the ISS and has been executing tests on the ground to get to the bottom of the problems. Over the weekend, Stich said that the ground team planned to fire 27 of Starliner's thrusters in pulses to check performance is as expected.
[3]
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During the briefing, Stich noted that the team had identified manual maneuvering as putting additional stress on the thrusters. As such, plans to perform manual flying of the Starliner between undocking and deorbit had been ditched.
[5]Boeing's Starliner set for extended stay at the ISS as engineers on Earth try to recreate thruster issues
[6]Starliner to remain docked to the ISS into July – with no new departure date
[7]Additional hatch operations on a Boeing vehicle – but this time it's Starliner
[8]Boeing's Starliner makes it into orbit at long last – with human crew aboard
The hot-fire test of Starliner's thrusters will also give managers an opportunity to assess its other issue, helium leaks.
Stich said: "It's been six weeks since we last checked the helium system … so we'll pressurize manifold by manifold and then hot-fire the thrusters. Then we'll get a chance to look at the helium leak rates and verify that the system is stable."
Considering the delays experienced just getting Starliner off the pad, a longer-than-planned stay at the outpost was not entirely unexpected, particularly since it affords engineers more time to investigate behavior not seen during ground tests.
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However, despite the brave assertion by managers that the initial mission duration was only ever a minimum and the team has been able to gather bonus experience on what a long-duration mission might look like, only the most ardent Boeing apologist would insist it's going well.
Starliner has always been approved for a contingency return to Earth. Yesterday's briefing represented an admission that September was now looking like a possibility for a nominal return and that plans were changing due to those pesky thruster issues. ®
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[1] https://youtu.be/85W74APuALA?si=PezQuLDMQQx79-h0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZqPII76AqoapDYxpB941KgAAAVI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/11/boeings_starliner/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/24/starliner_to_remain_docked_to/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/19/boeing_starliner_prepares_delay_iss/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/05/boeing_starliner_launch_success/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZqPII76AqoapDYxpB941KgAAAVI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
This is not a good time to remember you left the kettle on.
At least kettles are self cancelling... it's leaving the oven on, or worse a hair curler...
Not encouraging
"the team had identified manual maneuvering as putting additional stress on the thrusters"
In other news, Tesla revealed that using the steering wheel in the Model S put additional stress on the wheels, and advised against using it.
What are the astronauts doing?
So what are the astronauts doing?
Is this like an unexpected space vacation for them? Just chilling out and looking out the window at the Earth?
Or are there jobs around the ISS that they are helping out with, despite not being trained for a long stay?
Or was this contingency planned for, and they were trained before launch to perform lots of useful tasks on the ISS just in case this happened?
I can't imagine that they are that involved in debugging the capsule, I would imagine that's mostly done by ground control?
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
There are absolutely loads of jobs to do on the ISS. There's a whole bunch of experiments up there that need regular checking and note taking. Plus now the station is quite old, there's unexpected maintenance jobs that maybe nobody is trained for. So I imagine everyone's workload is reduced a bit. So maybe everyone gets extra time to look out the windows?
Plus they must be running some tests on the Starliner itself.
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
Well it's an old station now. It probably needs a bit of a Shake & Vac to put the freshness back. Then all those jobs around the house you never get round to. Toothbrushing out the dust in all the crevasses for one.
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
Catching up on DIY and housework? Cleaning the windows inside and out? Repainting the solar panels? Vacuuming under the sofa cushions? Washing the curtains? Putting up a few shelves?
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
Putting up a few shelves?
Roscosmos complained last time the American astronauts tried to do that in the Soyuz service module. And the Starliner needs a hole in the side like a... ...erm... ...hole in the head?
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
'Today, I'll be Rimmer and you can be Lister.'
If they are up there long enough, they might be able to get through to their insurer to find out if they are covered for this.
Re: What are the astronauts doing?
“Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back by … oh hang on a moment!”
Yikes!
That is all.
This is unacceptable!
Boeing need to be made to do yet another test flight. At their own expense. And unmanned.
I don't believe this spacecraft is safe.
Or at least not within acceptable risk margins. It's not the 50s/60s anymore. Obviously NASA have no choice but to say they approve the spacecraft for an emergency return. The alternative is to sit up there and die if an accident strikes the ISS.
It's pretty clear they don't even know what the margins are with all the helium leaks. They've doubled the acceptable life of the battery. Although that might be a lesser risk, as its designed for a longer life - and they have now got more data on its performance in space. But it's clearly also because they have no choice. At one point, 7 of their 8 thrusters failed - and they were dead if they couldn't be fixed.
At this point I'd argue that Boeing could be asked to pay for a Crew Dragon to go up and rescue the crew, and they can bring their pisspoorly built capsule down on automatic. Then they can pay for another unmanned test, and another, and another - until they can manage one that's close the flawless. Because they clearly can't be trusted to build something safe for a crew.
Of course now we have the problem that Falcon needs to do 3 flights without an upper stage engine going boom.
But I've got a bad feeling that they're going to take too big a risk on Starliner, because the alternatives are too expensive, and too bad for the policy of having 2 indpendent suppliers.
I'm worried they'll have a major thruster failure halfway through the de-orbit burn - and risk not having time to correct things.
Maybe they have a good idea of the problem, and are just being cautious. Clearly we don't have that information. But if they really knew what was going on, they'd have a much better idea of the timeline for return. This smacks of delaying and hoping for the best.
2054
After spending 30 years on the ISS, the crew of the Starliner received their pensions today.