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The Boeing Starliner is the newest of the spacecrafts that have been developed to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station(ISS). However, it seems to be facing quite a bit of issues, docked at the ISS. Hence, the question naturally arises, "Is Starliner, stuck at the ISS? Is it fit to be used in the future?"
This post gives a detailed analysis on this topic.
What is Starliner?
Credit: Wikipedia
The Boeing Starliner is a partially reusable spacecraft that is to be used to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It will be the third spacecraft used for this purpose, after Roscosmos's Soyuz spacecraft and SpaceX's Dragon capsule, when its first operational flight gets underway.
Flight Tests
The first Orbital Flight Test(OFT) occured on 20 December 2019, with a software anomaly causing it to enter a wrong orbit, which prevented its randevouz with the ISS. However, the spacecraft successfully landed at a spaceport in New Mexico. Hence, the first test flight was deemed a partial faliure.
OTF-2, meanwhile, was a success, with it successfully docking with the ISS, exchanging cargo, and returning to Earth safely.
However, the same cannot be said for the Crew Flight Test(CFT)...
The Situation-
The CFT had had a bunch of problems from the beginning of the mission itself, even before launch. To be honest (I think I'm speaking for the general public) but I really did expect something like this to happen to it in space.
1. Helium Valve Leaks
Originally supposed to launch on May 14, it was first delayed to May 21 due to a Helium leak detected by engineers in the form of a buzzing valve on the command module. Further Helium leaks were detected by engineers a few days ago, docked to the ISS.
Credit: NPR
These Helium leaks are also one of the main reasons that Starliner is still docked to the ISS
While the engines don't burn the Helium itself, it's used to pressurise the engines in the vaccum of space, which is what helps them fire up. Hence, with the leaks, firing the thrusters can get tricky... and dangerous!
2. Thruster Issues
In orbit, the first attempt of docking with the ISS had to be pulled off due to the Helium leaks mentioned above. However, when it did dock, 5 of its 28 thrusters failed to fire, 4 of which were fixed by NASA and Boeing engineers.
Turns out that these thrusters did not fire during the docking manoeuvre, causing the pilots, Sunita Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore to take over manually.
Stuck In Space?
Boeing spokespersons have assured that Starliner is in a fit condition to return the astronauts to Earth, in case of an emergency. However, they are going to stay at the ISS until the cause of the Helium leaks and thruster issues is figured out.
However, in what would be a very humiliating situation for Boeing, in case Starliner is not fit to use Starliner, NASA could use the SpaceX Dragon capsule or the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to return the duo to Earth.
Boeing has also said that despite the leaks, Starliner still has enough Helium for the thrusters to work properly.
The batteries of Starliner, which have a life of about 45 days are also being charged by the solar arrays of the ISS, as they were designed to be.
So, while the situation remains grim for Boeing, the astronauts part of the test are not ,in any way, stuck in space, and continue to do science experiments and test aboard the ISS.
That is all for this post. Stay tuned for more updates on Starliner.
Clear skies,
Aarav Iyer