Boeing Starliner Orbital Demonstration Mission

[Yazata]

Update: NASA has announced that the valve in the Centaur is fine. The problem has been traced to a ground computer that sequences launch events.

[Yazata]

I'm hearing rumors that Starliner is aiming at launching June 5. I've seen nothing official yet.

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It's more than a rumor!

NASA says (highlighting of launch time by me):

"Teams at @NASA and @BoeingSpace
confirmed on Monday that the #Starliner spacecraft, @ulalaunch Atlas V rocket, and ground support equipment are healthy and ready for the 10:52am ET June 5 launch of the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test.

Meteorologists with @SLDelta45 predict 90% favorable weather for liftoff."

https://x.com/Commercial_Crew/status/179...9121872012

nsNS

[Yazata]

Well, Starliner successfully launched this morning with its two astronauts aboard. Orbital insertion appears to be nominal and Starliner is currently chasing the Space Station.

It's very good to see this thing enjoy some success.

[C C]

Well, Starliner successfully launched this morning with its two astronauts aboard. Orbital insertion appears to be nominal and Starliner is currently chasing the Space Station.

It's very good to see this thing enjoy some success.

Wholly smoke!

https://youtu.be/bcCZlbTnZDY .... BBC alternative: https://youtu.be/JilolHC34ko

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/bcCZlbTnZDY

[Yazata]

Eric Berger says:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/ye...ew-dragon/

"It has now been eight weeks since Boeing's Starliner spacecraft launched into orbit on an Atlas V rocket, bound for the International Space Station. At the time NASA officials said the two crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, could return to Earth as soon as June 14, just eight days later.

Yes, there had been some problems on Starliner's ride to the space station that involved helium leaks and failing thrusters. But officials said they were relatively minor and sought to downplay them...

But days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months as NASA and Boeing continued to study the two technical problems. Of these issues, the more pressing concern was the failure of multiple reaction control system thrusters that are essential to steering Starliner...

For a long time, it seemed almost certain that the astronauts would return to Earth inside Starliner. However, there has been a lot of recent activity at NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX that suggests that Wilmore and Williams could come home aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft rather than Starliner. Due to the critical importance of this mission, Ars is sharing what we know as of Thursday afternoon.

One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision..."

Read more here.

nsNS

[Yazata]

Eric Berger's hot-off-the-presses article in Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/it...stronauts/

"Following weeks of speculation, NASA finally made it official on Saturday: two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in June will not return home on that vehicle. Instead, the agency has asked SpaceX to use its Crew Dragon spacecraft to fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth...

Saturday's announcement has big implications for Boeing... Ars will have additional coverage of Starliner's path forward later today...

Engineers from Boeing and NASA tested the performance of these thrusters at a facility in White Sands, New Mexico, in July. Initially, the engineers were excited to replicate the failures observed during Starliner's transit to the space station. (Replicating failures is a critical step to understanding the root cause of a hardware problem.)

However, what NASA found after taking apart the failed thrusters was concerning, said the chief of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, Steve Stich.

"I would say the White Sands testing did give us a surprise," Stich said Saturday. "It was this piece of Teflon that swells up and got in the flow path and causes the oxidizer to not go into the thruster the way it needs to. That's what caused the degradation of thrust. When we saw that, I think that's when things changed a bit for us."...

The result of this uncertainty is that NASA will now turn to the other commercial crew provider, SpaceX. This is not a pleasant outcome for Boeing which, a decade ago, looked askance at SpaceX as something akin to space cowboys. I have covered the space industry closely during the last 15 years, and during most of that time Boeing was perceived by much of the industry as the blueblood of spaceflight while SpaceX was the company that was going to kill astronauts due to its supposed recklessness..."

The now-iconic March 2004 Aviation Week cover from 20 years ago... that little rocket is SpaceX's original Falcon 1 rocket. Elon put half the money he got from selling his portion of Paypal into starting SpaceX. (The other half went into Tesla.) But despite that, they only had enough money to build four Falcon 1's... and the first three failed to reach orbit.

As to the question the magazine asks, I'd say the answer is an unequivocal 'Yes'. Privately held SpaceX's valuation is now estimated at ~$150 billion.

[Image: GVxFl9OXYAAD0qN?format=jpg&name=large]

nsNS

[Yazata]

Boeing employees are "humiliated" after SpaceX is chosen to rescue the astronauts stranded in space by problems with their Starliner ride.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/25/us-news/bo...-in-space/

"We have had so many embarrassments lately, we’re under a microscope. This just made it, like, 100 times worse,” said one worker, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We hate SpaceX,” he added. “We talk s–t about them all the time, and now they’re bailing us out.”

"It’s shameful. I’m embarrassed, I’m horrified,” the employee said.

With morale “in the toilet,” the worker claimed that many in Boeing are blaming NASA for the humiliation.

Boeing maintains its Starliner craft could safely get the astronauts back to Earth after putting them on the ISS during its maiden crewed flight on June 5.

"We believed that Starliner could bring them home safely, but NASA didn’t want to chance it,” the employee said.

“They have their own PR issues and don’t need two dead astronauts,” he added. “But we didn’t think that there would be dead astronauts. We’d never have recommended that they use us if they thought that it was going to be unsafe for them.”

Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said the talks with Boeing “came down to a little disagreement about risk.”...

Boeing has spent about $1.5 billion in cost overruns beyond the initial $4.5 billion contract it secured with NASA, which is hoping to make Starliner its second mode of transportation to the ISS alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Starliner’s issues may threaten that future and further damage Boeing’s already troubled reputation in the aerospace industry.

The company has been plagued by safety concerns since the start of the year, when a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet after it appeared to be missing four key bolts...

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My own guess (which is entirely speculative) is that Boeing got fat and happy on 'Cost-Plus' defense contracts, where if it takes longer or costs more than originally expected to complete a contract, then the company gets more money from the government. It makes sense on some defense contracts where the military is continually adding new capabilities and requirements to what they want. But it also creates an incentive for the contractor to go over budget and behind schedule.

The Starliner contract on the other hand was 'Fixed Price', where Boeing gets an agreed amount of money in exchange for delivering the contracted product. Any cost overruns have to be paid for by Boeing. So I get the impression that Boeing blithely blew through the $4.5 billion it got from NASA for Starliner, but Starliner wasn't close to complete. And now that expenses were coming out of Boeing's own pockets, the MBA's up in corporate started pressuring the engineers to cut costs and go cheap.

That's entirely speculative but it's my guess how Boeing screwed this up so badly.

[Yazata]

Astronauts are reporting a weird pulsing sound like sonar pings coming from loudspeakers inside Starliner.

https://x.com/latestinspace/status/1830353775212777931

Chris Hadfield says, "There are several noises I'd prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that @Boeing Starliner is now making."

https://x.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/1830380090569494973

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[Yazata]

NASA says

https://x.com/Commercial_Crew/status/183...8980302139

"A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6."

[Yazata]

Butch and Suni are (finally) back, on a SpaceX Dragon this time. Safe and sound.

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Two dolphins checking out the newly arrived Dragon (with a SpaceX recovery crewman on it).

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