Boeing Starliner Disaster! NASA Is Giving Up... and Realized SpaceX Better...
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Boeing Starliner Disaster! NASA Is Giving Up... and Realized SpaceX Better...
NASA indefinitely delayed the return flight of two astronauts on Starliner but continues to assert that this is not a 'stranded' situation.
So, is that the truth?
Indeed, Boeing Starliner Is Getting Worse Than You Think!
Let's find out on today's episode of Alpha Tech:
On June 5, the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission of Boeing's CST100 Starliner spacecraft completed its first stage by successfully sending two astronauts to the ISS. However, the return process did not go as smoothly.
In a statement on June 18, NASA said that the event of bringing astronauts back to Earth would occur after the second of the two planned spacewalks at the space station, which was scheduled for July 2.
Boeing Starliner Disaster! NASA Is Giving Up... and Realized SpaceX Better...
That spacewalk has since been postponed to late July after a water leak from a suit umbilical line in the airlock just as a June 24 spacewalk was beginning, that spacewalk was scrubbed.
This has led to the Starliner's test flight schedule being extended by at least a month and a half, and possibly longer.
On the afternoon of June 28, at a press conference, NASA explained that the additional delay is to conduct ground tests on the Starliner's RCS thrusters to try to replicate the conditions that caused the thrusters to malfunction during the approach to the station. These tests, expected to start this week, will last at least a few weeks.
Boeing Starliner Disaster! NASA Is Giving Up... and Realized SpaceX Better...
Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, noted that these ground tests would also allow for a detailed examination of the thrusters to determine the possible causes of the issue, something that cannot be done with the thrusters in space on the Starliner. These thrusters are located in the spacecraft's service module, which is discarded and burns up in the atmosphere, making postflight study impossible.
“This will be the real opportunity to examine the thruster just like we had in space on the ground, with detailed inspections,” he said.
Doing those tests now, rather than after Starliner returns, gives spacecraft controllers the option to do additional thruster tests on Starliner before undocking and to get as much data out of the spacecraft before it leaves home.
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