Boeing’s Starliner will remain docked to the International Space Station (ISS) for an extended period of time while engineers analyze data from the vehicle’s propulsion system.
After repeated delays, the spacecraft was scheduled to leave the post on June 25 and land at White Sands, New Mexico.
However, at the end of last week, mission managers chose to postpone the launch once again without specifying a new date. Two spacewalks from the ISS are scheduled for June 24 and July 2, which means the next launch date could be in July or even be pushed to August.
According to NASA: “The crew is not required to leave the station since there are many supplies in orbit and the station’s schedule is relatively open until mid-August.”
Starliner will have to leave the ISS before August without some additional engineering analysis. During the post-docking press conference, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, gave a figure of 45 days for the duration of the docking, meaning a docking would have to happen at the latest in half of second of July.
The delay will remove any potential conflicts with future spacewalks and give engineers more time to review data from Starliner’s propulsion system. The vehicle was damaged by helium leaks and problems with the propellant. Once the Starliner begins its return to Earth, the service module housing the problematic hardware will jettison, depriving engineers of an avenue of investigation.
Stich said, “We’re taking our time and following our standard mission management team process.
“We are allowing the data to guide our decision-making regarding the management of the small helium system leaks and propellant performance that we observed during rendezvous and docking. Additionally, given the duration of the mission, it is appropriate that we complete an agency-wide review, similar to what was done before the return of NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 after two months in orbit, to document the agency’s formal acceptance to proceed as planned.”
The Starliner has been cleared for use as an emergency return vehicle.
In the highly unlikely event that NASA chooses not to use the Starliner as a crew return vehicle, the agency has several options open to it. One could be removing two crew members from the next Crew Dragon launch – currently scheduled for the second half of August – or using a future Soyuz, although the latter requires custom seat liners for the crew.
During the June 18 conference call, Stich confirmed that the team had already cleared the vehicle for an emergency or emergency return and added, “I think we’re going to work through each of those issues and get to a point where we can get Butch back and Suni on the Starliner.”
After all, what’s a few more days in space compared to the colossal delays already racked up by the Starliner program? ®
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Image Source : www.theregister.com