The Boeing Starliner’s strange test flight is finally returning to Earth, but it’s empty

2 months ago 35

After years of delays, the archetypal crewed formation trial of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched connected June 5th, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station for what was expected to beryllium a abbreviated trip. However, aft thruster issues and some leaks, their instrumentality travel connected Starliner was postponed and yet canceled.

On September 6th, the Starliner spacecraft autonomously undocked from the ISS and began to instrumentality location without its crew, who volition enactment aboard the ISS until they instrumentality to Earth with SpaceX’s Crew-9 ngo successful 2025.

During a property league successful August, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich justified the decision, saying, “...there was conscionable excessively overmuch uncertainty successful the prediction of the thrusters.” Before the spacecraft undocked, NASA traced a bid of strange sounds it had been emitting to an “audio configuration betwixt the abstraction presumption and Starliner.”

Follow on present for each of the updates arsenic Starliner and its unit marque their mode backmost to Earth.

Boeing’s Starliner started making a repeating ‘pulsing’ dependable Saturday
Image: NASA
US astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA crushed unit connected Saturday, asking for assistance with a repetitive knocking dependable that was coming from the Boeing Starliner craft. The enactment was captured by a NASA Space Flight forum member, who included a signaling of it in a post that was spotted by Ars Technica.
In the recording, Wilmore asks the NASA unit successful Houston to configure their telephone to amusement them the noise, which helium says is coming from the talker wrong Starliner. Then, a repetitive clanging dependable with flimsy there’s-something-on-the-wing vibes tin beryllium heard. The Earthside unit subordinate describes it arsenic sounding “almost similar a sonar ping.”
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NASA volition bring the Starliner astronauts location adjacent twelvemonth connected SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission
Image: NASA
NASA head Bill Nelson announced contiguous that US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore volition instrumentality adjacent February with the SpaceX Crew-9 ngo aft spending much than 80 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
According to NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, “As we got much and much information implicit the summertime and understood the uncertainty of that data, it became precise wide to america that the champion people of enactment was to instrumentality Starliner uncrewed.” He said NASA recovered “there was conscionable just excessively overmuch uncertainty successful the prediction of the thrusters.”
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Boeing Starliner astronauts mightiness get a thrust location from SpaceX — successful 2025
Image: Boeing
During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they person a contingency program to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams location from the International Space Station (ISS) aboriginal adjacent year. If they’re incapable to permission sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there, the backup program would trust connected SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which has had its motorboat delayed portion officials fig retired what to bash next.
After a successful crewed motorboat of the Boeing Starliner connected June 5th (following several delays), the 2 astronauts were primitively expected to walk astir a week aboard the ISS earlier parachuting backmost to Earth. But the Starliner experienced thruster failures and helium leaks portion docking with the ISS, positive additional delays that person near the astronauts stuck successful orbit for implicit 2 months portion Boeing and NASA effort to find if the conveyance is inactive harmless to use.
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Third time’s the charm — Boeing’s Starliner crewed formation trial has yet launched
Screenshot: NASA
The 3rd effort astatine a crewed motorboat of the Boeing Starliner was a success. On Wednesday astatine 10:52AM ET, the spacecraft lifted disconnected atop the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and present has reached a “safe, unchangeable orbit.”
The Starliner volition bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station astir 24 hours from now, wherever they’ll “test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and instrumentality to Earth.” The 2 astronauts volition enactment astatine the ISS for astir a week earlier parachuting down successful the occidental information of the US.
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The archetypal Boeing Starliner formation with astronauts is delayed again.
The Crew Flight Test was scrubbed Monday night conscionable arsenic the astronauts settled into position, but present NASA says the motorboat volition beryllium pushed backmost by a mates of weeks, astatine least.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test present is targeted to motorboat nary earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT Friday, May 17, to the International Space Station. Following a thorough information reappraisal completed connected Tuesday, ULA (United Launch Alliance) decided to regenerate a unit regularisation valve connected the liquid oxygen vessel connected the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur precocious stage.
Boeing Starliner trial formation delayed until 2022
A trial formation for Boeing’s Starliner has been pushed backmost to 2022
NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA has officially pushed backmost the launch of its Orbital Flight-Test 2 until adjacent year, arsenic it continues to enactment connected an oxidizer isolation valve contented connected Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the bureau announced.
The bureau said successful a blog post that it’s continuing to measure imaginable motorboat windows for the mission: “The squad presently is moving toward opportunities successful the archetypal fractional of 2022 pending hardware readiness, the rocket manifest and abstraction presumption availability,” according to the post.
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NASA shuffles astronaut unit assignments amid ongoing Boeing delays
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft
Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images
Two NASA astronauts primitively slated to motorboat connected an upcoming formation of Boeing’s caller Starliner spacecraft person been reassigned to an upcoming SpaceX formation instead, arsenic delays proceed to propulsion backmost Starliner’s adjacent formation to space. Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada were expected to beryllium among the archetypal quality passengers connected Starliner during its archetypal crewed flights successful the coming years. Now, they’ll alert unneurotic connected SpaceX’s 5th crewed ngo to the International Space Station, which is slated to instrumentality spot successful the autumn of 2022.
Mann and Cassada were archetypal assigned to alert connected Starliner successful 2018. Mann was expected to alert connected the Starliner’s archetypal crewed trial flight, on with Michael Fincke and Butch Wilmore — a captious trial to beryllium that Starliner is harmless to transportation people. Cassada was slated to alert connected the adjacent formation aft Mann’s, Starliner’s archetypal authoritative crewed mission, which besides includes NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Jeanette Epps. Both Mann and Cassada are rookie astronauts, portion galore of the different Boeing flyers person been to abstraction before, but for Epps.
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Boeing postpones its Starliner ngo aft detecting a method issue
Photo by Aubrey Gemignani /NASA via Getty Images
Boeing has postponed the trial motorboat of its uncrewed Starliner astronaut capsule. The hold was caused by a method contented that popped up aft lightning storms connected Monday. Mission teams were figuring retired whether the issues tin beryllium resolved successful clip for Starliner’s adjacent motorboat accidental connected Wednesday astir noon, but Boeing ruled that retired by Tuesday night.
“We’re going to fto the information pb our work,” Boeing’s Starliner manager John Vollmer says successful a statement. “Our squad has worked diligently to guarantee the information and occurrence of this mission, and we volition not motorboat until our conveyance is performing nominally and our teams are assured it is acceptable to fly.”
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After years of turmoil, Boeing’s Starliner capsule is acceptable for a do-over
Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images
Boeing, erstwhile a large subordinate successful space, has suffered a drawstring of setbacks, failures, and ineligible challenges successful caller years that person chipped distant its dominance successful the abstraction industry. The company’s abstraction portion has been lapped by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and near to ticker connected the sidelines arsenic different companies person moved up with ambitious programs, from sending astronauts to the International Space Station to returning humans to the aboveground of the Moon.
On Friday, Boeing volition effort to mend its estimation during an uncrewed trial of its Starliner astronaut capsule to the ISS. This volition beryllium the 2nd motorboat for the capsule, coming a twelvemonth and a fractional aft its archetypal effort failed to scope the abstraction station. Eighteen months of grueling method investigations and a drawstring of enactment shake-ups has brought Boeing backmost to the motorboat pad for a $410 cardinal do-over that would enactment it connected way for its archetypal motorboat with humans aboard aboriginal this year. SpaceX, Boeing’s rival successful NASA’s Commercial Crew program, is acold ahead, with 3 astronaut missions already nether its belt.
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Boeing’s rider spacecraft really suffered a 2nd chartless bundle glitch during debut flight
An creator rendering of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Image: Boeing
Boeing’s caller rider spacecraft suffered a 2nd large bundle bug during its debut formation to abstraction successful December — 1 that would person ended successful a “catastrophic spacecraft failure” had it not been corrected. Fortunately, Boeing patched the contented earlier it became a problem, but the contented has information experts disquieted astir the company’s ongoing oversight of its abstraction vehicles.
The spacecraft is Boeing’s caller Starliner capsule, which is designed to instrumentality crews to and from the International Space Station for NASA. Boeing launched the Starliner connected its archetypal trial formation connected December 20th, without immoderate radical connected board. The formation was meant to show the vehicle’s quality to get to space, dock with the International Space Station, and past instrumentality to Earth — each of the large things it volition person to bash erstwhile astronauts are inside.
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