Today's NASA Conference About Starliner

In a word, I'd have to say, "meh." I didn't get much new out of it, if anything. 

The video conference was at 11 AM EDT, a telecast from the International Space Station. A summary is online at Blogs.NASA.gov which includes a link to a 22 minute video of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams answering questions.  Following the crew news conference, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich and Boeing Commercial Crew Program Manager and Vice President Mark Nappi spoke extensively about the mission and testing plans ahead of the Crew Flight Test (CFT) return. This wasn't a video, but rather a roughly 70 minute meeting that was broadcast. You can listen to a replay of the leadership briefing on YouTube; not moving video, just audio. 

The bottom line, though is that the ground testing of the thrusters at White Sands, New Mexico hasn't repeated the issues seen in space as Starliner was approaching the ISS. 

“The temperatures we have been able to achieve are not quite what we would have hoped for based on the flight data,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager. He said engineers used heaters to try to replicate the thermal conditions experienced by the thrusters from the firing itself as well as exposure to the sun.

The thrusters in Starliner's Service Module are housed in “doghouses” and the idea being investigated is that those little housings might retain more heat than previously modeled. During reentry, the Reaction Control Thrusters used for rendezvous and docking aren't used as much as bigger thrusters in the Service Module. 

Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and commercial crew program manager, said engineers are working on a “little bit over 30” actions linked to both the thruster problems and helium leaks, of which more than half have been completed. All of them are scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of next week.

While there was talk around the web today saying Starliner might be coming home by the end of July, the audio conference doesn't seem to support that. The next obvious date for the Starliner to depart the ISS is the next crew rotation mission, Crew 9, penciled in for mid-August. The usual protocol is for the new Crew to dock at the ISS and overlap with the the departing crew (Crew 8) for around a week. For both Crew 8 and 9's capsules to be docked to the ISS would ordinarily mean Starliner would leave before Crew 9 got there. There is such a thing as an “indirect handover,” though, where the Crew-8 Crew Dragon departs before the Crew-9 mission launches, rather than the preferred approach of having the two crews overlap on the station for several days. 

All of which combines to make me think the whole thing is still “up in the air,” so to speak. (No, it's above the air. Sorry.) There is no particular news here about when the Starliner CFT is going to be declared done. Could be the end of July; could be the end of August or any date before or after. There are no indications that ground-based testing has been successful or that any good information has come out of it. SSDD. Same Situation Different Day.

Starliner docked to the ISS earlier in June. Image credit: NASA