A year ago this week, the Starliner crew stranded in space of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were settling in for Thanksgiving on the ISS - their 2 week mission to the Space Station having been shut down over the preceding summer and made into a much longer mission - returning in March of this year instead of late June of '24. The reason was some pretty frightening things that happened in their Starliner capsule on the way to the ISS in June.
There has been talk since their flight that it would be better to fly Starliner uncrewed as a cargo drone to the ISS. Only cargo, no people. Today, NASA made it official.
NASA and Boeing are now targeting no earlier than April 2026 to fly the uncrewed Starliner-1 mission, the space agency said. Launching by next April will require completion of rigorous test, certification, and mission readiness activities, NASA added in a statement.
“NASA and Boeing are continuing to rigorously test the Starliner propulsion system in preparation for two potential flights next year,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, in a statement.
That link in the first paragraph describes some conversations between Butch and Eric Berger of Ars Technica. I remember being shocked when I read of some of the stuff Butch and Suni went through. Admittedly, they're functionally test pilots so they routinely go through things - and do things - that are way beyond my world, but there were several places in that story where Really Bad Things seemed like they could have happened.
NASA also said it has reached an agreement with Boeing to modify the Commercial Crew contract, signed in 2014, that called for six crewed flights to the space station following certification of the spacecraft. Now the plan is to fly Starliner-1 carrying cargo, and then up to three additional missions before the space station is retired.
“This modification allows NASA and Boeing to focus on safely certifying the system in 2026, execute Starliner’s first crew rotation when ready, and align our ongoing flight planning for future Starliner missions based on station’s operational needs through 2030,” Stich said.
My gut feel in reading about Starliner has been that it may not make financial sense for Boeing to permanently fix all the problems. As a reminder, Starliner's first flight was in December 2019, without a crew and the mission had to be cut short because software problems plagued the spacecraft. It was nearly lost shortly after launch as well as before atmospheric reentry. It did not achieve its planned rendezvous with the space station. The second orbital test flight took place in May 2022. Because of problems on the previous mission, this spacecraft also flew uncrewed. This flight was more successful, reaching the space station despite some thruster issues.
NASA then spent more than two years testing Starliner on the ground before its first crewed flight in 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. During its approach to the space station, the Starliner spacecraft once again experienced serious thruster issues. (However, the life-and-death nature of this flight was not revealed until nearly a year later.) Starliner ultimately docked with the station, but after heated deliberations, NASA informed Boeing that the vehicle would return to Earth uncrewed.
So three orbital test flights, two uncrewed and one half of a crewed test flight with little to show for it. If someone were to ask you how your flight was, whether business or pleasure trip, saying, "well, I'm alive - it didn't blow up" is better than not surviving it but still not a ringing endorsement. This fourth test flight, at some time in 2026, will be a big test. It's difficult to think they can get enough systems to pass that there are no questions, but it's certainly a goal to strive for.
NASA has remained largely mum about the changes made to Boeing’s propulsion system and the tests it has undergone on the ground. Part of the problem with diagnosing the thruster issues is that the problems occurred in the “service module” portion of the spacecraft, which is jettisoned before the vehicle reenters Earth’s atmosphere and returns to Earth.
Third test flight's Starliner capsule docked to the ISS in June '24, before the mission was aborted. Image credit: NASA
"Cargo Only"? NASA should have just said, "NO!" and sued to recap any funds possible. Turdliner should never fly again. It should be a lesson at every engineering and accounting firm as to what not to do. The people that kept pushing it and pushing it should be cold-tarred and feathered and beaten out of town using pool noodles.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because even 'Cargo Stayliner' is potentially going to kill someone, just this time on the ISS. It's quirkier than Soyuz or Progress capsules that HAVE rammed and damaged the ISS three times we know about.
And the failure of NASA to announce how bad PoopLiner is should lead to a raft of resignations. I'm not saying to take them to the top of the VAB and see if they can fly, but... Sweet Glamorous Glennis, this is sooo bad.