NASA, Boeing Make Progress on Starliner Valve Issue
CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA and Boeing continued work over the weekend and Monday morning on the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft service module propulsion system in preparation for the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission to the International Space Station.
Work progressed to restore functionality to several valves in the Starliner propulsion system that did not open as designed during the launch countdown for the Aug. 3 launch attempt. The valves connect to thrusters that enable abort and in-orbit maneuvering.
With the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V and Starliner in the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) near Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Forces Station in Florida, engineering teams are able to power on Starliner allowing the vehicle to receive commands, and have direct access to the spacecraft for troubleshooting.
Inside the VIF, Boeing has been able to command seven of 13 valves open that previously were in the closed position. Test teams are applying mechanical, electrical and thermal techniques to prompt the valves to open, and are moving forward with a systematic plan to open the remainder of the affected valves, demonstrate repeatable system performance, and verify the root cause of the issue before returning Starliner to the launch pad for its Orbital Flight Test-2 mission.
Boeing also has completed physical inspections and chemical sampling on the exterior of a number of the affected valves, which indicated no signs of damage or external corrosion.
In the coming days, NASA and Boeing will continue work to bring all affected valves into the proper configuration. If all valve functionality can be restored and root cause identified, NASA will work with Boeing to determine a path to flight for the important uncrewed mission to the space station.
NASA, Boeing and ULA are accessing the potential for several launch opportunities with the earliest available in mid-August. Any launch date options would protect for the planetary window for the agency’s Lucy mission – the first-ever mission to explore Trojan asteroids.
14 responses to “NASA, Boeing Make Progress on Starliner Valve Issue”
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aside from the obvious safety issues (Think Safety) …that they are using three of the four horseman of the failed system to make them work. is it just me or should we all be skeptical about this plan? root cause?
where is the net to catch tools dropped OVER THE BOOSTER?
Yes, we should all remember the Titan II that blew up in its silo…and how it began.
(Yes, I know this isn’t on fuieled eternal standby, but I still wouldn’t want to be the one to explain to Tory how I punched a hole in one of his rockets..)
Yeap I wouldnt want to be any where in this decision tree…my guess is that the decisions get worse 🙂
There’s the STP and the Lucy launches they need to fly, so they can’t stay on the pad too long. If they do de-stack OFT-2 could get seriously delayed by Dragon Crew-3, Cargo Dragons CRS-23 & CRS-24, and Crew Dragon Axiom Ax-1 (Jan 2022).
Dark times
IIRC the SpX-23 cargo Dragon is launching at the end of August. Unless Starliner goes up before then, there will not be a docking port available until SpX-23 departs from the ISS after being docked for about 6 weeks.
So with the other launches using the SLC-41 pad. Seems if Starliner isn’t ready to fly in the first 3 weeks of August, the next available launch opportunity might be November.
Not fueled, but the Centaur has to stay pressurized to support itself and its payload…
I want to read the book that the astronauts write in either program. Everything seems to be failing on this program. The contractor is not performing, and NASA and the astronaut office is not doing oversight. Is this another 737 MAX program where Boeing conducts it’s own program reviews?
this is one of those incidents which in the safety world is what I call a berma shave sign…it is trying to tell you “stop see what is going on” except its not written that way, you have to interpret it
I will be curious to see how this goes forward…its clear that Boeing is under enormous pressure from some quarter to launch…and it will be curious to see where that leads us all
If “I” were chief strow, or the safety guy I would be in someone’s office asking this all to be explained to me. NASA is having a bad run of it with the Nauka module and this
No astronaut is going to write anything about this until they are safely retired – and maybe not even then. You’ve got, at best, quite a bit of a wait ahead of you on that. Of course someone like Eric Berger might do the job in the interim and save any astronauts the need of sticking their heads up.
Hairnets, please!
I assume its been defueled 🙂
The way this cluster-frack is playing out, I wouldn’t bet on anything.
Does Boeing plan on going to orbit or running a central Florida Jazzercise clinic?