NASA plans to try the Starliner again, the Boeing ship of the trapped astronauts

It has been more than half a year after the Boeing ship, the Starliner, returned empty in what should be its first manned test. More than six months later, uncertainty still plans on the capsule: NASA has reported that it does not yet have a new flight date and even consider try again without astronauts.

It all started on June 5, when the so -called tripled flight test (CFT) took off with the NASA Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams astronauts towards the International Space Station (ISS) for a mission of approximately 10 days. The Starliner arrived healthy and saved to the orbital laboratory, but suffered helium leaks in the propulsion system and propeller failures during the journey, so NASA extended the stay for months to study the problems.

Finally, on August 24, the agency decided to bring the Starliner without crew, which happened without incident on September 6 in the New Mexico desert. Williams and Wilmore were reallocated to the CREW-9, a long-term mission to the ISS to finally return to a Spacex Crew Dragon. After nine and a half months, the astronauts returned to end their adventure; However, uncertainty about the Starliner continues.

Analyzing the Starliner “very carefully”

“Without a doubt, we are analyzing Starliner very carefully,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager during a press conference after CREW-9 ameter. «We are analyzing the vehicle, the helium system and we have some candidate stamps that we are going to replace. We will perform tests during the summer in White Sands [una instalación de pruebas de la NASA en Nuevo México]».

The ship has four capsules, each with 12 propellers: five of the relatively powerful class of “maneuver and orbital control” (OMAC) and seven propellers of the “reaction control system” (RCS), which are used for more precise adjustments, such as those necessary during the coupling.

The problems with the propelling that Starliner experienced during the manned mission affected the RCS propulsors: 5 of the total 28 stopped working during the Starliner approach to the ISS, although the mission team finally managed to put four of them into operation again.

Earth tests linked the problem of RCS propulsors with overheating: the fact that it was repeatedly turned on seems to excessively heat the coating, so some of the Teflon stamps are bulge and this affects the flow of the propeller. This theory is shaping the settings that will be made in the design and future operations of Starliner, according to Stich.

But NASA does not want It is still reflected on the space agency websitewill transport astronauts (which, in fact, already have names and surnames: Mike Fincke and Scott Tingle, from NASA, along with Joshua Kutryk, from the Canadian space agency. “It is something that is still being considered,” said Stich.

The idea is that Starliner becomes, along with the Crew Dragon of Spacex, in NASA’s astronaut vehicles, and the agency’s intention is to certify the ship for manned missions shortly after this next flight, if everything goes well. “We really need Boeing to implement a manned rotation,” said Stich. “The return of Butch and Suni in Dragon, for me, demonstrates the importance of having two different crew transport systems, the importance of Starliner and the redundancy that we are incorporating into the manned space flights for our Earth’s low orbit economy.”