27.08.2022
Starliner crewed test flight slips to early 2023
WASHINGTON — Work on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle to correct minor problems during an uncrewed test flight in May will delay its first flight with astronauts to early 2023, NASA and Boeing said Aug. 25.
The Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on board, is now scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2023. Boeing had been preparing to fly CFT as soon as this December immediately after completing the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 test flight in May.
Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Starliner at Boeing, said during a media teleconference that a review of the data from the OFT-2 mission, which is now wrapping up, shows the need for a “minimal amount of changes” to the Starliner that will fly the CFT mission, a process he called “fine-tuning” and which he said the company expected from the earlier test flight.
That work, though, ruled out any chance of a CFT mission this year. “We had schedules that supported late ’22, the December timeframe, for CFT,” he said. “There were areas that we needed to go do a little bit more work on the systems. We plugged that into the plan and that’s what moved us out by a month, five weeks or so.”
That work addresses problems that came up during the OFT-2 flight, including Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) thrusters that shut down during the orbital insertion burn. Nappi said some “debris-related conditions” likely caused those thrusters to shut down, but later noted that is their best estimate since the OMAC thrusters are in a service module that burns up on reentry and is not recovered.
“We do not know where the debris may have come from,” he said. “The bottom line is that it looks to be the leading root cause, and we’ve eliminated that by looking at the CFT vehicle and making sure that there’s absolutely no debris in the system.”
Several reaction control thrusters also shut down during the mission, which Nappi said was likely due to low inlet pressures and can be addressed with a “tweak in timing and tolerances” in software. High pressures in a thermal control loop noticed in the mission were linked to filters that engineers determined are not needed and can be removed. A guidance system on the spacecraft called VESTA worked well but generated more data than the flight software could handle, requiring changes to the software.
Work on the Starliner vehicle that will fly CFT, which includes the same crew module that flew the original OFT mission in December 2019, is on track, Nappi said. That crew module will be mated to its service module in November, “and we have good plans to get us to support that date in February.”
Boeing is not planning to make major changes to the valves in the service module for CFT. Those valves suffered corrosion before an OFT-2 launch attempt in August 2021 when ambient moisture reacted with nitrogen tetroxide propellant that seeped through the valve, creating nitric acid that corroded aluminum elements of the valve. For the May OFT-2 launch, Boeing took steps to purge moisture from the valves and regularly open them to confirm they worked.
“We feel that we have a good short-term solution that we are enhancing slightly for CFT because it’s being implemented during the build and not after the vehicle was built,” he said. “We’re flying that same configuration on CFT.”
Boeing is continuing to study long-term changes that would involve sealing off the valves from moisture and replacing aluminum in them. “Our goal is to get it done as soon as possible,” he said, but added the schedule was tight to have it ready in time for the first operational Starliner mission, tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2023.
A CFT mission to the International Space Station, docked there for eight days, would have to work around an “incredibly busy” schedule there in the first half of the year, said Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program manager. By early March there will be a Soyuz crew exchange, followed by the Crew-5/Crew-6 exchange of Crew Dragon missions. Also on the manifest are cargo Dragon, Cygnus and Progress missions and Axiom Space’s Ax-2 private astronaut mission.
He said, though, that flying CFT will be a priority so that the vehicle can be certified in time for its first operational mission in the fall. “CFT is a big deal for us,” he said. “When these guys are ready in February, we’ll be making sure there’s room for them, and they will be a high priority unless we’re working a major issue on board space station.”
Montalbano added that he expects to start discussions with the Russian space agency Roscosmos in the fall to update the existing “integrated crew” agreement signed in July to exchange seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles. The current agreement covers one exchange a year between Soyuz and Crew Dragon in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The modification, he said, would include Starliner and extend the agreement beyond 2024. “The goal is a long-term agreement where, every time we fly, we have a cosmonaut on either SpaceX or Boeing and then an astronaut on the Soyuz spacecraft.”
Boeing, in its second quarter financial results release July 27, said it recorded a $93 million charge in the quarter from its commercial crew program, “driven by launch manifest updates and additional costs associated with OFT-2.” Boeing has now recorded $688 million in charges related to development of Starliner dating back to early 2020.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 2.10.2022
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NASA Updates Crew Assignments for First Starliner Crew Rotation Flight
NASA has added two astronauts to the agency’s Boeing Starliner-1 launch to the International Space Station, the spacecraft’s first mission following completion of its flight tests and certification.
Astronauts Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke of NASA will serve as the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. Both astronauts have previously flown as crew members aboard the space station.
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps remains assigned as a mission specialist on Starliner-1. Epps also continues cross-training on the Dragon spacecraft to protect for other flight opportunities.
The agency’s Starliner crew rotation missions to the space station will carry four crew members at a time. Future crew assignments for Starliner-1 will be made following review and approval by the agency and its international partners.
Starliner-1 will launch following the successful completion of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), which aims to demonstrate Starliner’s ability to achieve NASA certification and safely fly regular crewed missions to space station.
Boeing is targeting launch of its first test flight with astronauts in early February 2023, pending space station program approval, rocket manifest, and confirmation by the Eastern Range. Starliner will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
After a successful CFT mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for future crewed missions to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
For more than 21 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Regular commercial crew rotation missions enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the station and prepare for future commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit. As part of Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars. Inspiring the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation – ensures America will continue to lead in space exploration and discovery.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 28.10.2022
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Boeing’s Starliner charges approach $900 million
LAS VEGAS — Boeing announced Oct. 26 it will take yet another charge against earnings because of delays in the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program, bringing the total losses recorded by the company to date on the program to nearly $900 million.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Boeing announced a charge of $195 million recorded in its fiscal third quarter it blamed on Starliner. It comes after a $93 million charge reported in its second quarter financial results July 27.
The latest charge brings the total losses announced by Boeing on the Starliner program to $883 million dating back to early 2020, when the company took a $410 million charge after a first uncrewed test flight, called Orbital Flight Test (OFT) was cut short by technical problems. The company took an additional $185 million charge in October 2021 when valve problems delayed the OFT-2 mission.
The company blamed the charges in the last two quarters in part on increased costs to get Starliner ready for its first flight with astronauts on board, the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, now scheduled for no earlier than February 2023. That will allow operational, or post-certification, missions for NASA to begin as soon as the fall of 2023.
Boeing said the major factor in the latest charge was a change in schedule for those post-certification missions. “The increase recorded in the third quarter of 2022 was primarily driven by timing of the three future post certification missions which are now assumed to be completed by 2026 based on NASA’s revised launch plans,” the company stated in its SEC filing. “We had previously assumed that the post certification missions would be completed by 2024.”
NASA officials have stated that, once Starliner is certified after the CFT mission, it will alternate with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has been performing all of NASA’s commercial crew missions since being certified after the Demo-2 test flight in mid-2020. Each company would thus conduct one commercial flight for NASA per year.
Boeing’s commercial crew contract that NASA awarded in 2014 includes six post-certification missions. NASA awarded the same amount to SpaceX but has twice added missions to the contract, bringing the total to 14 as of the end of August.
Boeing did not discuss in detail commercial crew charge in the press release it issued about its quarterly financial results, stating only that it recorded losses on commercial crew as well as four aircraft programs in its Defense, Space and Security business unit. The company also did not mention the commercial crew charge in an earnings call.
The company did caution in the SEC filing that this latest charge may not be the last for the Starliner program. “Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods,” it stated.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 6.11.2022
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NASA again delays the debut crewed flight of Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft
NASA announced new launch dates of its 2023 astronaut missions to the International Space Station and Boeing's debut crewed mission picked up another two-month delay.
The troubled Starliner capsule now won't get its opportunity to launch with crew members any time before April 2023. That's two months later than the previous February 2023 launch date.
The agency said in a blog post that the decision to push back Starliner's Crew Flight Test "deconflicts visiting spacecraft traffic at the space station." NASA also explained it's still working with Boeing to address several remaining issues following the less-than-perfect uncrewed OFT-2 test last May. More information beyond "a variety of verification efforts across several critical systems," was not disclosed however.
The Starliner experienced multiple issues with thruster corrosion prior to an OFT-2 launch attempt and multiple thruster performance issues during the flight test in May. Unfortunately, those thrusters were located on the Starliner's service module which is discarded during re-entry before landing.
In August, Mark Nappi, Boeing Starliner program manager, told reporters, that Boeing teams have made sure "that same condition doesn't exist."
In NASA's blog post, the agency said that all crewed flight test hardware components including the Starliner and the rocket it will launch on, United Launch Alliance's Atlas V, are on track to be completed in the early part of 2023.
The Starliner capsule slated to launch Boeing's first crew of astronauts is a reused one from the first uncrewed orbital flight test back in 2019 called "Calypso."
Boeing recently completed refurbishing the exterior and installing the heat shield. It will be mated with its service module later this year at Boeing's factory located at Kennedy Space Center. That was originally set to occur this month.
Whenever it launches, Starliner's crewed flight test mission will carry NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS for about two weeks.
The goal, to certify Boeing's Starliner human transportation system for future long-duration ISS missions for NASA. The first operational mission won't have an anticipated launch date until the CFT is deemed successful.
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 9.11.2022
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NASA astronauts debut new patch for Boeing Starliner crew flight test
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore wears the new mission patch for his and Suni Williams' 2023 launch to the International Space Station. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)
The first astronauts set to fly on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft debuted a new look for their mission patch during a spacesuit fit check.
Crew Flight Test (CFT) commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams sported the new insignia during a validation test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two NASA astronauts, together with their backup Mike Fincke, suited up and tried out the Starliner's pressurized crew module to ensure a good seat fit, suit functionality, audio systems, cabin temperature and day of launch operations.
The test, which Boeing declared a success, was conducted as the Starliner's crew module neared completion and was considered "a measure of confidence" for the astronauts as they continue to work towards their launch, which this month was re-targeted from March to April 2023.
"We are working to have the CFT vehicle ready to fly ahead of the new launch date," Mark Nappi, Boeing's vice president and program manager for the Starliner program, said in a Nov. 3 statement. "With the help of experienced NASA test pilots, Wilmore and Williams, we are closer to our goal of flying a safe and capable spacecraft."
Although the crew validation test was held on Oct. 18, photographs from the event were only released by NASA on Monday (Nov. 7). The images, which showed Wilmore and Williams donning their bright blue pressure suits, also revealed the new CFT mission patch.
Shaped like the Boeing Starliner crew capsule with its attached service module, the emblem depicts the spacecraft launching from Earth atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The crew's destination, the International Space Station, is sewn in gray, set against a field of seven yellow stars and the words "Crew Flight Test."
Below the rocket, the patch includes the Starliner logotype and the crew members' names, Wilmore and Williams, separated by the NASA astronaut symbol. The entire insignia is outlined in an orange border, making it stand out from the blue outer fabric of the crew's suits.
The new patch replaces an emblem first introduced in 2019. Created as part of a set, with each patch representing an uncrewed flight test that preceded the CFT, the original insignia was designed with the input of the original flight crew, which did not include Wilmore or Williams.
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams debut a new look for their mission patch while participating in a crew validation test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke display the original Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) patch on their shoulders. Both were at one time assigned the CFT crew but were since reassigned to SpaceX's Crew-5 and serving as backup the CFT crew, respectively. (collectSPACE)
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore (at right), pilot Suni Williams and backup Mike Fincke outside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 18, 2022. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)
Quelle: CS
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Update: 7.01.2023
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Crew set to fly on Boeing Starliner add final touches to mission patch
Boeing has finalized the design of its first crew mission patch after the astronauts assigned to the test flight were seen wearing an early version of the emblem.
The aerospace company is preparing for the third test flight of its CST-100 Starliner commercial spacecraft. The Crew Flight Test (CFT), targeted for April, will mark the vehicle's first launch with astronauts on a short duration mission to and from the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams will fly the Starliner on its planned final shakedown cruise before it begins carrying four-person crews on NASA-contracted flights supporting the orbiting complex.
Both Wilmore and Williams helped redesign the CFT patch, replacing a versionthat dated back before their assignment to the mission. Wilmore and Williams are represented in the final design through the use of specific colors and details.
The prominence of orange, for example, surrounding the Starliner and United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is based on the hue's traditional association with flight testing. The choice of "flight test orange" is also a nod to the astronauts' own experiences in qualifying new vehicles.
Both Wilmore and Williams are experienced naval aviators and test pilots, who combined have spent 11,000 hours in more than 50 aircraft, including the F/A-18 Hornet, T-45 Goshawk, H-46 Sea Knight and V-22 Osprey.
"We wanted to incorporate [in the design of the patch] all aspects of the CFT mission to include launch and the primary focus of the mission as being a first flight test," said Wilmore, in a statement released by Boeing on Thursday (Jan. 5).
In October of last year, Wilmore and Williams wore an early version of the CFT patch while taking part in a validation test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The embroidered emblem was similar to the final design, but some of the lettering was sewn using yellow thread instead of orange.
The earlier version also omitted identifying that the flight was a Boeing and NASA endeavor. The names of both entities have now been added to the patch.
With the reveal of the finalized art, Boeing also shared insight into the inspiration and symbolism behind some of the design choices.
The patch's outline of the Starliner and Atlas V represent the future of commercial human spaceflight. The border, according to Wilmore, also honors those who have been a part of the evolution of the Boeing capsule, from its first designers to those who fabricate, operate and will fly the spacecraft.
The blue marbling of Earth symbolizes Williams' love of the ocean and highlights the role of the CFT Starliner spacecraft, named "Calypso," as the gateway to doing research off the planet just as Jacques Cousteau's research vessel Calypso did on Earth. Williams christened the capsule following its first launch into space, Boeing's first Orbital Flight Test (OFT), in 2019.
The depiction of the International Space Station signifies Starliner's destination in space and both astronauts' time as crew members on the orbiting laboratory.
Finally, the seven stars surrounding the space station are meant as a reminder of the astronauts who traveled to space during NASA's Mercury program, while the astronaut symbol between Wilmore and Williams' names represents all who will follow in their footsteps after Starliner receives its safety certification from the U.S. space agency.
Wilmore and Williams will be the first astronauts to launch atop an Atlas rocket since the four Mercury orbital flights piloted by John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper in 1962 and 1963.
"Historically mission patches have included seven stars, which signifies the history of human spaceflight, all the way back to the original Mercury 7," Wilmore said.
Quelle: CS
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Update: 26.01.2023
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Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crew and Service Modules Mated
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner’s crew and service modules were connected, or mated, on Jan. 19 in advance of the first launch with astronauts to the International Space Station on the company’s next-generation spacecraft.
During the operation inside the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifted the reusable crew module atop the brand-new service module to become a fully operational spacecraft.
The complete spacecraft will fly NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams to the space station for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket no earlier than April 2023 to test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system prior to regular flights with crew to the station.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 19.02.2023
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NASA and Boeing still working through final steps of Starliner's astronaut test flight
The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft remains set for later this spring, NASA and Boeing officials said Friday, though a target launch date has yet to be determined.
Starliner, built under the same NASA program as SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, is years behind schedule and has suffered a series of high-profile setbacks, including an uncrewed test flight in 2019 that was cut short before reaching the International Space Station. That mission was eventually redone and completed last May.
Meanwhile SpaceX has flown seven crewed missions to the ISS and is set to launch its eighth later this month.
Teams remain on schedule and are working through final steps ahead of Starliner's end-to-end stress test of its human transportation system capabilities, mission managers said during a press briefing Friday, offering few other major updates.
"We are taking our time and being very diligent as we work through the final preparation of the flight hardware, the flight software, the crew training, and closing out all of the certification products," said NASA's Steve Stich, manager of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.
The Starliner team works to finalize the mate of the crew module and new service module for NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test that will take NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to and from the International Space Station.
"When we look at the (Crew Flight Test) mission, just from the station manifest perspective, the window is kind of the middle of April to the end of April. That's what we're looking at," Stich told reporters.
That final launch window will be dictated by a busy season of crew and cargo space station traffic in the first part of the year and potential priority conflicts with the launch partner, United Launch Alliance.
Expected to be the last in a series of test flights, Starliner's Crew Flight Test is designed to certify Boeing's human transportation system for future long-duration ISS missions for NASA.
"NASA and Boeing are working together to close out all that certification and analysis work. This is the final piece to say that the vehicle is ready to go fly the missions and become human rated," Stich said. "We're about 80% through that work."
The Crew Flight Test suffered delays last November, shifting from a targeted February launch date to one later in April. According to a NASA blog post, that decision was made to deconflict with space station traffic and provide more close out time for the Boeing team.
If the timeline shifts any later in the year, the Crew Flight Test could coincide with ULA's inaugural launch of its upcoming Vulcan Centaur rocket. Launch priority would then have to be determined since the Vulcan and Starliner's ride, ULA's Atlas V rocket, use the same Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launch pad.
"At the beginning of May, we're still okay. If we start slipping past that, we'll have to have some pretty good discussions with ULA on on who goes first," said Boeing's Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner program manager.
Nappi is confident that Boeing's teams are right on pace to make an April launch attempt telling reporters, "the hardware is stacked, it's been mated, it's in what we call the hazardous processing area. We're doing final integrated testing there."
"The crew will be down next week, and we'll be doing our crew interface test," said Nappi in regards to the opportunity for the two Crew Flight Test NASA astronauts, Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore, to travel to Florida and run through final launch-day preparations inside the Starliner.
The NASA astronauts for Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) arrive in the high bay of Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 18, 2022. From left are Suni Williams, pilot; Barry “Butch” Wilmore, commander; and Mike Fincke, CFT backup spacecraft test pilot.
"We're going to do that in two parts," said Nappi. "The first part will be next week, and then after the cargo is loaded, we'll do the second part at the beginning of March."
Beyond that, a last step that must be completed within 60 days of a launch attempt is loading propellants onto Starliner, "which is a real big milestone for us," Nappi said.
However, NASA has much to get through in the coming weeks before Starliner gets its turn to dock with the station.
In just over a week, NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission is slated to carry four astronauts to the space station for the next long-duration science mission. About five days after that mission docks, the Crew-5 astronauts who have been on station for about six months are set to return and splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Then, on March 10, the next SpaceX space station cargo resupply mission is set to liftoff from Kennedy Space Center. Also, around that time, an empty Russian Soyuz crew spacecraft will dock at the station to replace a faulty one that sprang a leak and was deemed unsafe to return crew in.
For the most up-to-date information about launches from Florida, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 27.02.2023
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Boeing's Starliner on track to launch its 1st astronaut flight this spring, NASA says
Mission managers for the first crewed Starliner flight are confident the spacecraft will launch in a 60-day window that opens in April.
Boeing's Starliner crew vehicle is on track to fly its first astronauts in space in April.
In a Feb. 17 update, NASA and Boeing officials outlined the aerospace company's work on its entry for NASA's commercial crew program, and where the historic flight might fit into the space station's busy manifest in upcoming months.
"We don't have any big announcements, but we thought we would share the progress," said Steve Stitch, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, at the start of last week’s call. Stitch was joined by Jeff Aaron, manager, systems engineering and Integration Office for NASA's International Space Station (ISS) Program and Mark Nappi, Boeing's Vice President and program manager for the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
The trio met to give an update on Starliner's progress and provide an estimated timeframe for the vehicle's upcoming Crew Flight Test (CFT). Starliner's last mission, Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), launched without a crew aboard in May 2022. The spacecraft docked with the ISS for a little less than week, and, despite hiccups with a few of the vehicle's orbital maneuvering and attitude control (OMAC) thrusters during an orbital insertion burn, OFT-2 was deemed a success upon its return to Earth.
"We took the summer to understand all that, and about the October timeframe, we established an April target for the CFT mission based on the work that was ahead of us, the hardware issues that we had encountered, and then the engineering product that needed to be completed," Mark Nappi said in the update. "We've done our designs, we've tested this hardware, the analysis is all done."
The time has come to "wrap it all up in a bow and make sure that we (Boeing) did what we said we were going to do," Nappi added.
The next major milestone for Starliner's progress will be loading propellant into the vehicle's service module. Successful propellant loading initiates a 60-day window for NASA and Boeing to launch the CFT mission, a constraint put in place by Boeing to mitigate corrosion to valves in the vehicle's propulsion system. Such corrosion and a stuck valve delayed an August 2021 attempt to launch OFT-2 due to the propellant's interaction with atmospheric moisture.
“We are much more confident today with the mitigation that we've put in place with the purge systems and the sealing of the connectors so that we don't get that kind of moisture intrusion into the valve, but we still have that 60-day guideline," Nappi said.
"We took the summer to understand all that, and about the October timeframe, we established an April target for the CFT mission based on the work that was ahead of us, the hardware issues that we had encountered, and then the engineering product that needed to be completed," Mark Nappi said in the update. "We've done our designs, we've tested this hardware, the analysis is all done."
The time has come to "wrap it all up in a bow and make sure that we (Boeing) did what we said we were going to do," Nappi added.
The next major milestone for Starliner's progress will be loading propellant into the vehicle's service module. Successful propellant loading initiates a 60-day window for NASA and Boeing to launch the CFT mission, a constraint put in place by Boeing to mitigate corrosion to valves in the vehicle's propulsion system. Such corrosion and a stuck valve delayed an August 2021 attempt to launch OFT-2 due to the propellant's interaction with atmospheric moisture.
“We are much more confident today with the mitigation that we've put in place with the purge systems and the sealing of the connectors so that we don't get that kind of moisture intrusion into the valve, but we still have that 60-day guideline," Nappi said.
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore (at right) and pilot Suni Williams outside the Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 18, 2022. (Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
When exactly in that roughly two-month window the launch will take place is dependent on a number of factors, including closing the book on OFT-2's OMAC thruster malfunction. "There's really only one big item that we have not closed out…and that is the OMAC failure that we had [on OFT-2]," Nappi said, adding, "we are working with NASA to make sure that we both agree that [the] box in the fault tree can be closed. We'll bring that back to a board here in the beginning of March and make those decisions."
Another complication for scheduling Starliner's next flight is ISS traffic. Starliner is only equipped to dock at the station's forward port. On future refurbishments of Boeing's spacecraft, Nappi indicated, Starliner would have "dual-port capability," but that won't be ready for Starliner's upcoming flight. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance, which launched the Crew-5 mission in October, is currently docked to the ISS's forward port. Crew-5 is scheduled to depart sometime after the arrival of Crew-6, launching early next week.
Steve Stitch expanded on the ISS traffic-jam. "Looking at the space station and Commercial Crew manifests, the priorities are, obviously, to get this crewed rotation completed. Where we launch Crew-6 and dock Crew-6, and then return Crew-5. The next priority is to execute this cargo mission to resupply the space station and have some experiments for the onboard crew to execute. And then following that, the next priority is really ... to go fly the CFT crew flight demonstration."
Launch traffic at the pad is another factor Starliner's flight must contend with. The Boeing spacecraft launches on a ULA Atlas V rocket, which is already being phased out for the company’s new and improved Vulcan rocket — also approaching its first launch. "[ULA has] an important milestone that they'd like to achieve as well, in the same timeframe, which adds to the complexity of our ISS traffic," Nappi said on the call, adding he and mission managers in communication with ULA "still feel that the mid to late April time slot is good for us, and balances with the ULA priorities."
When it does launch, Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS for a two-week stay, before returning Starliner to Earth, landing in White Sands, New Mexico. Once complete, assuming all mission goals are met, NASA can officially certify Starliner for crewed flight and enter the vehicle into rotation with SpaceX's Crew Dragon fleet to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS.
According to Nappi, Boeing is "making the progress that we need to in order to be ready for that crew rotation in the winter of '24." Once in rotation, Boeing expects to fly one Starliner flight a year.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 25.03.2023
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NASA delays Boeing Starliner's debut crewed voyage
A visitor looks at a model of the Boeing Starliner astronaut capsule at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) space exploration conference in Paris, France, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
WASHINGTON, Boeing's first mission carrying astronauts to space aboard its Starliner capsule has been delayed until at least the summer, a NASA official said on Thursday, as people familiar with the matter said last-minute tests and technical debates nixed a plan for an April launch.
Previously planned for late April, the Starliner mission is now slated to launch after a private astronaut mission scheduled for May "as teams assess readiness and complete verification work" for the spacecraft, NASA's space operations chief Kathy Lueders said on Twitter. She did not provide further details about reasons for the delay.
Starliner's debut crewed mission, which will carry commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, to the International Space Station will be a crucial moment for Boeing's space unit. It represents the spacecraft's final testflight before joining rival SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule as the second NASA-approved ride to orbit.
Steve Stich, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in an interview with Reuters before the delay was announced that the certification process for the spacecraft had taken "a little longer than we expected" and was "a whole lotta work."
A successful 10-day test mission with Starliner docked to the space station, an orbital research lab some 250 miles high in Earth's orbit, would mark a crucial milestone. Boeing has struggled to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the nascent market for private astronaut flights.
Finding a new launch date after April is complicated by heavy traffic at the space station over the next few months and a tight schedule for Starliner's launch provider, the Boeing-Lockheed (LMT.N) joint venture United Launch Alliance, Boeing and NASA officials have said.
The delay comes as Boeing and NASA performed extra testing on several areas of the spacecraft.
Boeing software engineers are running tests with Starliner's manual flight system used as a backup in case the spacecraft's automated flight software fails, Stich said.
A Boeing spokesman said the focus for that testing is for "added redundancy in cases of emergency."
Deliberations about mission-critical lithium ion batteries and the low chance they overheat while the spacecraft is docked to the station also took more time than expected, Stich said.
In a recent pre-flight technical meeting with Boeing and NASA officials, the space station's chief safety officer and representatives from NASA's astronaut office disagreed with Boeing's plans to proceed with the mission citing concerns over the batteries, according to a person who attended the meetings.
But those NASA officials eventually agreed with Boeing and others at the federal space agency that the chances of a battery mishap that would endanger the crew were low, said the person who requested anonymity to discuss preflight deliberations.
Boeing also is weighing battery redesigns and a plan to add shielding in case one overheats, Stich said. SpaceX, which has already flown seven crewed missions for NASA since 2020, redesigned its spacecraft's batteries at one point, he said.
"Of course, they have the luxury of having a lot of battery expertise at Tesla(TSLA.O)," Stich said, referring to the electric carmaker Musk leads.
Boeing in a statement said on Wednesday it has had no issues with Starliner's batteries during tests.
"Boeing has conducted more than a dozen Starliner battery thermal runaway tests, stressing the battery cells beyond their intended limit. No issue has surfaced," the company said.
Stich acknowledged there had been "a little disagreement" during the meetings over how a potential failure of one of the battery's cells could spread to other cells. He said there have been no test failures, but added sometimes a cell got "a little out of balance" during past tests.
The Starliner battery concerns and expected upgrades, which had not been previously reported, would add to a growing to-do list of tests and redesigns Boeing has faced before it embarks on the long-awaited operational phase of its NASA contract: six astronaut missions over the next few years.
NASA has overseen Starliner's development under a $4.5 billion contract awarded in 2014. Some 80 software failures cut short an initial, uncrewed Starliner test flight in 2019. The capsule made a successful repeat of that mission in 2022.
Boeing also plans to redesign a system that separates Starliner's main crew module from its service module, a trunk section containing thrusters that is ditched before the spacecraft returns to Earth, Stich said.
Federal procurement data shows NASA has agreed to pay Boeing at least $24.8 million for the upgrade of that system.
Boeing last year also opted to redesign valves on Starliner's propulsion system to prevent them from sticking shut prior to launch, which caused a lengthy delay in 2021.
NASA and Boeing's aim to have the valves redesigned for future missions initiated a dispute with Boeing's propulsion system supplier. Aerojet Rocketdyne(AJRD.N)blamed Boeing for the problems, refusing to pay for the redesign, Reuters reported last year.
Boeing has now cut Aerojet from the redesign process and is working directly with Aerojet's valve supplier, New Jersey-based company Marotta, said a person involved in the process who asked not to be identified.
Aerojet and Marotta declined to comment. Boeing said "we are working with Marotta on a valve redesign."
Quelle: REUTERS
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First crewed Starliner launch slips again
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft was wheeled into a processing area at the Kennedy Space Center in early February in preparation for fueling ahead of its launch on a crewed test flight then scheduled for mid to late April. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — The first flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle with astronauts on board, previously scheduled for late April, has been delayed, likely until the summer.
In a tweet March 23, Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for space operations, said that Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission had been delayed to some time after the launch of Axiom Space’s Ax-2 private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in early May.
Lueders said the delay in the launch of CFT, which had been planned for the later half of April, would allow teams to “assess readiness and complete verification work” but did not offer additional details about the delay, or why it was announced now. She said further details would come after the revised schedule was finalized.
It was not clear what triggered the announcement, with no details provided by NASA or Boeing. Industry sources said that pre-flight checkouts and other work, such as software testing, had taken longer than planned, but were unaware of any specific development that prompted the NASA announcement.
At a Feb. 17 briefing, NASA and Boeing officials said work was on schedule for a launch in mid to late April. At the time, the next major milestone was fueling of the spacecraft, which officials said they wanted to do within 60 days of the scheduled launch to mitigate any leaks that could corrode valves, a problem that delayed the vehicle’s second uncrewed test flight by more than 10 months. That fueling was scheduled to take place in early March.
However, neither the company nor the agency had announced that fueling had taken place, and agency officials hedged about the schedule when asked about progress on the mission. “We are in the middle of final preps for the CFT flight, in the middle of closing out all of the certification work,” Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said in a March 11 briefing after the splashdown of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. That included the “final phases” of flight software testing, he said.
He noted that he and others in the commercial crew program had been focused on the launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission and return of Crew-5, and that he was not up-to-date on the progress Boeing was making on CFT. “We really need to step back here in March and take a look at where we’re at and determine what the next steps are,” he said. “Right now we’re targeting a no-earlier-than launch date of the end of April.”
Phil Dempsey, NASA ISS transportation integration manager, offered a similar schedule at a March 13 briefing ahead of a SpaceX cargo Dragon launch to the station. NASA and Boeing “were talking over the readiness of the vehicle,” he said. “There is a handful of open work that is still being assessed. The current timing is no earlier than the end of April, April 30 right now, but that is under review at the moment based on the readiness of the vehicle.”
NASA and Boeing had not provided updates on the status of the CFT mission since those briefings. There had been no other updates regarding preparations for the mission.
That included the status of the Atlas 5 launch vehicle that will launch Starliner. A launch in late April would have put it in conflict with the inaugural launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, currently scheduled for as soon as May 4. Vulcan and Atlas use the same launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and ULA has been conducting tests of the Vulcan rocket on that pad. It has not shared updates on the status of the Atlas 5 used for Starliner.
During a panel at the Satellite 2023 conference March 15, Tory Bruno, chief executive of ULA, said he was still confident that Vulcan would be ready for launch in May, based on tests on the pad and qualification tests of the vehicle’s BE-4 engines.
CFT will fly NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the station for a mission scheduled to last eight days. It is the final flight test before NASA certifies the vehicle for use in ISS crew rotation missions starting no sooner than early 2024.
NASA, Boeing to Host Media Briefing, Provide Starliner Update
NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 29, to provide an update on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Managers will share a mission status and discuss upcoming milestones ahead of Starliner's first flight with astronauts prior to certifying the spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the space station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Audio coverage of the teleconference will livestream on the agency’s website.
The briefing participants are:
- Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
- Joel Montalbano, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
- Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, CST-100 Starliner, Boeing
To participate in the call, media must RSVP no later than one hour prior to the start of the event to: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
The Starliner spacecraft will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The demonstration flight will carry two NASA astronaut test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and will prove the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system.
Quelle: NASA