Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft Prepares For Its First Crewed Mission
For around a decade, both NASA and Boeing have been performing different tests on the Starliner Spacecraft. After NASA selected the Boeing Starliner, along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, for the Commercial Crew Program, the first crewed test flight test was initially planned to occur in 2017. However, various delays and setbacks pushed this maiden crewed flight test back.
Now in early 2023, Boeing’s Starliner is set to launch its first crew in just over a month this April. The mission will use the same Starliner as the one used for the first Orbital Test Flight and will carry a crew of 2. The launch will happen on ULA’s Atlas V rocket and is intended to dock with the ISS for a short period of time and return to Earth for a mission duration of only 7 days.
Right now, final preparations are being made for both the spacecraft and the crew. While Starliner has had somewhat of a rough history in orbital test flights, both NASA and Boeing are confident enough to test the system with humans. Here I will go more in-depth into the recent mission progress, the two crew members, what to expect in the coming weeks, and more.
Fixing OFT-2 Problems
Recently in February, NASA and Boeing officials outlined the aerospace company’s work on its entry for NASA’s commercial crew program. “We don’t have any big announcements, but we thought we would share the progress,” said Steve Stitch, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. A lot of the recent updates had to do with going over results from the most recent Starliner orbital test flight, OFT 2. Here, the uncrewed spacecraft docked with the ISS for a little less than week, and, despite hiccups with a few of the vehicle’s orbital maneuvering and attitude control (OMAC) thrusters during an orbital insertion burn, OFT-2 was considered a success upon its return to Earth. This mission occurred not long ago in May 2022.
In the update, Markk Nappi commented, “We took the summer to understand all that, and about the October timeframe, we established an April target for the CFT mission based on the work that was ahead of us, the hardware issues that we had encountered, and then the engineering product that needed to be completed. We’ve done our designs, we’ve tested this hardware, the analysis is all done.”
One serious complication that occurred on OFT 2 that they are working to ensure doesn’t happen again had to do with corrosion. During the August 2021 launch window some issues were detected with 13 propulsion-system valves in the spacecraft prior to launch. The spacecraft had already been mated to its launch rocket, United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V, and taken to the launchpad. Attempts to fix the problem while on the launchpad failed, and the rocket was returned to the ULA’s VIF (Vertical Integration Facility). Attempts to fix the problem at the VIF also failed, and Boeing decided to return the spacecraft to the factory, thus canceling the launch at that launch window. The valves had been corroded by the intrusion of moisture, which interacted with the propellant, but the source of the moisture was not apparent.
Now, for the upcoming crewed mission, successful propellant loading initiates a 60-day window for NASA and Boeing to launch the CFT mission, a constraint put in place by Boeing to mitigate corrosion to valves in the vehicle’s propulsion system. In regard to this, Nappis said, “We are much more confident today with the mitigation that we’ve put in place with the purge systems and the sealing of the connectors so that we don’t get that kind of moisture intrusion into the valve, but we still have that 60-day guideline,”
What’s very interesting about this launch is the fact that there are still a few problems that occurred during OFT 2 that the agency and Boeing have not officially agreed on being fixed and closed out, despite the fact that this crewed mission is only months away. For example, in another quote, Nappi mentioned, “There’s really only one big item that we have not closed out…and that is the OMAC failure that we had [on OFT-2].” Specifically, two Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control System (OMACS) thrusters failed during the orbital insertion burn on OFT 2. He continued by saying, “We are working with NASA to make sure that we both agree that the box in the fault tree can be closed. We’ll bring that back to a board here in the beginning of March and make those decisions.”
Mission Updates
Now that we know more about some of the final checks and work being done by Boeing and NASA, we can take a closer look at some other important mission updates, the crew, and the availability of the ISS. One issue that is affecting this mission’s schedule is a traffic jam at the ISS. Steve Stitch expanded on this by highlighting, “Looking at the space station and Commercial Crew manifests, the priorities are, obviously, to get this crewed rotation completed. Where we launch Crew-6 and dock Crew-6, and then return Crew-5. The next priority is to execute this cargo mission to resupply the space station and have some experiments for the onboard crew to execute. And then following that, the next priority is really … to go fly the CFT crew flight demonstration.” This will have a slight impact on the exact launch date of Starliner and the Atlas V.
While all of this is happening, the two crew members are preparing as well. When it does launch, Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS for a short stay, before returning Starliner to Earth, landing in White Sands, New Mexico. Barry Eugene “Butch” Wilmore is a NASA astronaut and United States Navy test pilot. He has had two spaceflights, the first of which was an 11-day Space Shuttle mission in November 2009, to the International Space Station. Suni Williams is another NASA astronaut with a lot of experience and formerly held records for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes).
Both of which have been very busy leading up to this mission. Only days ago, they both completed the first part of a critical two-part Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT). During CEIT, Wilmore and Williams, along with a NASA astronaut and backup test pilot, performed hands-on training with the tools, equipment, and hardware they will use on orbit. They worked with the Starliner team to perform in-cabin checkouts, including adjusting the spacecraft seats, inspecting spacecraft interfaces, examining cargo, and conducting floor panel and side hatch operations. The second part of the test is scheduled to occur in early March, and will include the astronauts maneuvering inside the cabin with cargo installed in the spacecraft.
Wilmore and Williams are slated to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 in Florida no earlier than mid-to-late April 2023. They will fly aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, powered by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Crew Flight Test is hoping to demonstrate the ability of Starliner and the Atlas V rocket to safely carry astronauts to and from the space station. Assuming a successful test flight with astronauts, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.
Around one month before this, NASA and Boeing completed a full start to finish integrated mission dress rehearsal for the company’s CST-100 Starliner flight with astronauts to the International Space Station. During several days at Boeing’s Avionics and Software Integration Lab (ASIL) in Houston, the ASIL Mission Rehearsal (AMR) combined tests of software and crew systems, along with operations teams. The completion of the end-to-end mission rehearsal clears a path for the next CFT milestones, including working with the crew and flight controllers on various integrated failure scenarios and a series of flight-day parameter updates that will become available as the team nears launch day.
“Testing is a key component to the success of a human space program,” said NASA Commercial Crew Program Software Certification Manager Chad Schaeffer. “The AMR and the integrated failure scenarios are excellent examples of the rigorous testing teams are performing on Starliner. The rehearsal went well and reflects the continued improvement in executing this test and helps pave the way to the much anticipated first crewed flight.” During the rehearsal, Wilmore and Williams, along with a fellow NASA astronaut, worked through mission milestones in coordination with mission operations teams located inside flight control rooms at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The crew members worked in a flight deck simulator networked to control rooms and avionics, operating the same software that will be used during CFT. They effectively demonstrated the software is ready to operate Starliner during prelaunch, launch, docking to the space station, undocking, and the return to Earth through landing. The AMR provided end-to-end testing of hardware configuration, software, communications, preparation configuring hardware and software, routing communications channels, and mapping simulated sensor data. All of which in preparation for the very important upcoming mission.
Conclusion
Boeing and NASA are working hard as the first ever crewed orbital flight test of the Starliner Spacecraft is scheduled to launch just over a month from now. The crew of two is working on some final tests and they are making sure the spacecraft is in working order. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.