Both NASA and Boeing
downplayed the requirement to perform a docking in space, claiming it was more
of an objective rather than absolutely needed
It will be a subdued Christmas
on the International Space Station — Santa never made it there.
The presents and other goodies
bound for ISS aboard the CST-100 Starliner, landed safely in the New
Mexico desert this morning, bringing a swift end to a very rough debut
flight to space.
The space capsule, which
didn’t have any people on board, was meant to spend up to a week in orbit and
dock with the International Space Station. But a software problem during launch
prevented the Starliner from reaching the station, and Boeing was forced to
bring the spacecraft home after just two days, The Verge reported.
Despite the troubles during
the trip up, Starliner’s landing was otherwise flawless. The capsule took
itself out of orbit at around 7:23 am ET on Sunday and plunged through Earth’s
atmosphere to reach the surface below.
After surviving temperatures
of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the vehicle then deployed three main parachutes to
lower itself down gently to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. As it
touched down at the site, just before 8 am ET, the Starliner also inflated air
bags to cushion its landing.
Demonstrating this landing
capability was a big deal for the Starliner’s short, but critical, trip, as it
shows that the spacecraft can come back from space safely. That’s key for the
future, when Starliner does have people on board.
Boeing developed Starliner as
part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which aims to use privately made
vehicles to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space
Station. This first mission of the Starliner was meant to run the vehicle
through all of its duties in space before astronauts climb inside for rides to
the space station.
But due to the glitch during
launch, Starliner didn’t get to demonstrate another crucial aspect of its
mission: docking with the International Space Station. The capsule is designed
to automatically approach the space station and attach to a docking port all on
its own.
That capability still hasn’t
been performed, though, and it’s unclear if Boeing will have to fly another
Starliner test mission without crew to show that it can dock with the ISS.
Apparently, it’s not absolutely necessary to do a docking before people fly.
“Both Boeing and SpaceX
proposed a mission to do an uncrewed test flight that demonstrated a docking,
so I would not say that’s a requirement,” Steve Stich, the deputy manager of
NASA’s Commercial Crew program, said during a press conference after the launch.
“It’s something that is nice to have. But I wouldn’t say it’s a requirement for
crewed flight.”
Both NASA and Boeing
downplayed the requirement to perform a docking in space, claiming it was more
of an objective rather than something that the space agency absolutely needed
from the company. However, Boeing officials aren’t saying that they’re ready to
put people on board the Starliner yet.
“Just to be frank, Boeing,
until we look at all that data, is not in a position to propose going to do a
crewed flight test,” Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing’s space and
launch division, said during a press conference after landing. “And if
everything had gone swimmingly, I don’t think I’d be here proposing it until I
saw the data.”
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine
said reviewing the data could take weeks and months before a final decision is
made about how to move forward.
The good news is — Boeing was
able to bring the Starliner back after a mishap, since that might be a matter
of life or death in the future. And, Boeing argued that it had completed up to
60% of its testing objectives for the flight, even without docking.
Ultimately, an improperly
timed clock is to blame for the capsule’s unexpected performance. Just after
launching to space, the Starliner was supposed to perform a much-needed engine
burn to put it en route to rendezvous with the space station. But the capsule’s
internal clock thought it was a different time than it actually was, preventing
the vehicle from performing that ignition.
Supposedly, the Starliner
“grabbed” the wrong time from the Atlas V rocket it had flown on to space,
putting the clock off by 11 hours. As a result, the capsule didn’t make it to
the orbit it needed to reach and meeting up with the space station was no
longer an option for this flight.
Boeing decided the best course
of action was to bring the Starliner home early and run through all the motions
of landing. There was some concern about landing, too, since a previous test of
Starliner’s parachutes didn’t go exactly as planned, either. In November,
Boeing tested a critical system on the capsule, which entailed landing the
vehicle in the White Sands desert afterward. Only two of the three main
parachutes deployed during the test, as one of the chutes hadn’t been attached
properly.
Boeing ensured the public it
had fixed that problem, and all three parachutes performed as expected this
morning. Once the vehicle touched down at White Sands, a full team of personnel
drove out to greet the capsule. Boeing has various color-coded teams that are
responsible for checking out the vehicle when it gets back, to make sure
there’s no concern of contamination from some of the propellant and to extract
future crews from the Starliner.
No humans were on board this
flight, but there was a smart mannequin named Rosie in one of the seats,
equipped with sensors to gather data about the flight. Rosie didn’t get
extracted, though, as the dummy was too heavy to take out.
Now that this Starliner is
back, the capsule could be refurbished and reused for future missions. Boeing
says that each Starliner can be reused up to 10 times if needed. The company
claims it’s easier to reuse the vehicle since it’s designed to land on the
ground and not in the ocean, where the salt water can be particularly damaging
to spacecraft.
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