The first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which will carry two astronauts, is facing uncertainty as no exact return to Earth has been announced.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich has said that the US space agency is considering extending the duration of the Starliner mission from 45 days to 90 days, CNN reported.
Officials have repeatedly indicated that the Starliner, which faced problems including a helium leak and thruster outage while headed to the International Space Station in early June, would be safe to bring home the astronauts, including Indian-origin Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore.
On Friday, Stich said NASA is considering extending the maximum duration of the Starliner mission from 45 days to 90 days and that no specific return date has been set yet, CNN reported.
Addressing a briefing on Friday, the NASA official said, “We are just looking at the timeline to execute (the test in New Mexico) and then review the data.” He added, “And that is the biggest challenge, which will determine the landing date.”
“We’re in no hurry to come home,” Stich said.
Part of the desired extension is due to ground tests to be conducted by Boeing and NASA in New Mexico aimed at better understanding why some of the Starliner’s thrusters failed unexpectedly during the first phase of its journey.
Stich and Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Boeing’s commercial crew program, also said engineers are still unsure about the cause of Starliner’s problems.
Nappi said the goal is to perform ground tests while the spacecraft is in space to narrow down the possible causes of the thrusters malfunctioning.
“So if the results come back (from the testing done in New Mexico) and we get all the answers, we can land the plane and come home,” Mark Nappi said.
“If it comes back and says, ‘This is 80 percent the answer. And if you run another docked hot fire (test on Starliner in orbit), you might get 100 percent the answer’ — then we want (Starliner) to be there so we can get that information,” he said.
Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore have integrated with the rest of the crew aboard the International Space Station and are performing routine tasks.
Several more helium leaks were identified as the spacecraft headed for the International Space Station, as well as thruster-related problems. Starliner’s service module, a cylindrical attachment at the bottom of the spacecraft that provides most of the spacecraft’s power during flight, had several problems, CNN reported.
By design, the service module will not survive a return to Earth. The module is jettisoned and destroyed when the Starliner spacecraft returns to the atmosphere, and that’s why the Boeing and NASA teams opted to safely dock the Starliner spacecraft with the space station while they worked to learn as much as possible about the issues they encountered.
It’s not yet clear whether NASA will extend the maximum mission duration to 90 days. Stich said officials will have to clarify Starliner’s battery life for that purpose. However, he said the batteries are being recharged on the space station, but they should work about as well after 90 days as they will in the first 45 days.
The space flight industry often faces cost overruns, delays and missed deadlines. However, Boeing has faced challenges that have surfaced, especially when the Starliner program is compared directly to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, CNN reported.
Crew Dragon, which falls under NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme for astronaut transportation, completed its first test flight in 2020 and has been carrying out regular missions since then.
SpaceX did not have the benefit of designing the Crew Dragon spacecraft on the back of its Cargo Dragon vehicle, which sent supplies to the International Space Station for years before its successor began operations, while Boeing designed the Starliner from scratch.
“We’ve done a lot of very good test flights so far, and it’s being looked at negatively,” Nappi said.
According to the latest information regarding the ongoing space mission, Expedition 71 crew members on Friday packed up a U.S. cargo craft, cleaned the International Space Station, studied future piloting techniques, and performed eye tests.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts spent the day recommissioning the Space Botany Facility. In its live blog, NASA said, “Robotics controllers are scheduled to separate the Cygnus space freighter from the Unity module on July 12 and release it into Earth orbit for disposal over the South Pacific Ocean, ending a five-and-a-half-month mission aboard the orbital lab.”
NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick spent most of his time Friday cleaning up debris and removing equipment inside Cygnus with assistance from fellow NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps and Tracy C. Dyson. Canada’s Arm2 robotic arm took over Cygnus on Feb. 1 with more than 8,200 pounds of science experiments and crew supplies.
Epps operated standard medical imaging gear found in an optometrist’s office on Earth and peered into Dyson’s eyes. He examined Dyson’s cornea, retina and lens to help flight surgeons understand and counteract the effects of microgravity on the crew’s vision.
Earlier, Dyson assembled and stowed excess space station hardware for disposal. During the day, NASA flight engineer Mike Barrett routed cables and reprogrammed communications systems inside the Columbus laboratory module.
He placed hardware and components used for advanced orbital plumbing in the Tranquility module’s bathroom earlier in the week. Mike Barrett filled supply kits with biomedical gear, including sample tubes and needles, into Columbus’ two Human Research Facility racks.
On Friday, Starliner’s commander and pilot, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, performed space botany work on Kibo. They removed the Plant Habitat growth chamber from Kibo’s Express rack, replaced its cameras and carbon dioxide sensors, then reinstalled the research equipment.
“NASA and Boeing will continue to evaluate the performance of Starliner’s propulsion system ahead of its return to Earth from the orbiting lab. NASA and Boeing leaders participated in a media teleconference today to discuss Starliner and station operations,” NASA said in the liveblog.
“NASA is now targeting late July for the next spacewalk outside the space station. This change will allow teams on the ground to understand and troubleshoot a water leak in the Service and Cooling Umbilical Unit, which forced an early termination of the spacewalk on Monday, June 24,” it said.
Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub taught future crew members planetary spaceflight and robotic piloting techniques and conducted two sessions exploring ways to manufacture new materials on the lunar surface.
Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin spent the day inventorying medical kits and cleaning wings inside the Rassvet module, and station commander Oleg Kononenko replaced thermal components in Roscosmos’ life-support hardware.
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