Boeing Starliner

Author
Discussion

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Tuesday 19th October 2021
quotequote all
Scott Manley's latest video seems surprisingly pessimistic about Starliner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2UpLIpRhI

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Tuesday 19th October 2021
quotequote all
No, It won't be ready to try again until early 2022 at least.

They've been having a joint press conference with NASA today. Two of the faulty valves have been removed and will be sent for CT (X-ray scan) at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Others will go for testing with fuel at White Sands.

This Starliner was fuelled up 46 days before it was supposed to fly. It's designed to be done up to 60 days before apparently. On the previous (abortive) mission, it was fuelled 35 days before flight, although they did a wet dress rehearsal 21st days before launch.

They just need to chuck a few packets of silica gel in and duct tape up the valve exhausts.




RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Tuesday 19th October 2021
quotequote all
They wont have an actual commercial flight until some time in 2023.

Remember they are contracted for 6, but NASA isnt far away from announcing more flight contracts for starliner and Dragon...

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Monday 13th December 2021
quotequote all
Boeing are going to swap out the faulty Starliner capsule for another. No word on when they’ll try to launch it yet.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Tuesday 14th December 2021
quotequote all
No word on whats wrong either.

Potential May launch.

3 service modules just for the demos

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Sunday 23rd January 2022
quotequote all
Is there any more news in the last month?

The last thing I saw was they had unloaded the propellent ready to de stack the broken service module in order to attach the replacement service module.

Doesn't strike me as being an amazingly rapid pace?

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Monday 24th January 2022
quotequote all
They have the flight pencilled in for May this year.

ULA actually have a lot of Atlas V flights lined up this year, so I imagine they’re more frustrated with Boeing than most.

They had only 5 flights last year. This year they have just done one and have 10 more scheduled.

DaviBrons

12 posts

26 months

Tuesday 25th January 2022
quotequote all
While Gemini had a longer life in active mode, and was a excellent capsule that isn’t given enough credit today, it actually has less life support capability than both Dragon 2 and Starliner. If you look at how many people the capsules have to support, not the amount of time that they can support the maximum occupants, then the true life support capability can be found. In addition, modern electronics and equipment are probably a lot more energy-intensive.
The space shuttle is another matter. While it achieved great things, it was a compromised design and never achieved its true purpose (make stuff cheaper to get into orbit). It was a bad reusable spaceship, since it’s 1960s tech made it difficult to achieve said cheap re usability. As
a result (and maybe because I was too late for the Shuttle), I don’t think the shuttle really furthered space travel. However, maybe the Starship will continue and further its legacy.
As for a large space settlement or base, capsules can’t really support such a endeavour. However, Starship is a step in the right direction.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Tuesday 25th January 2022
quotequote all
Very true about the Shuttle.

In many ways, Gemini was a cobbled together project in that the original plan would have been to transition from Mercury direct to Apollo. When Apollo was given the moon landing objective (not its original purpose), it was realised that a whole load of new techniques for spaceflight would need to be learned very quickly, so a quick and dirty interim design was needed - which became Gemini.

In the end, Gemini proved to be a tough little bird but it wasn't really capable of being extended beyond the original specifications - although it would have been interesting to see how the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project would have worked, if it hadn't been axed.


Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2022
quotequote all
NASA are having a press conference on the Starliner spacecraft and its upcoming Orbital Flight Test-2 mission later today.

This will be at 5pm UK time (noon ET / 16:00 UTC).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jd6q1q1-T8


Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2022
quotequote all
NASA are having a press conference on the Starliner spacecraft and its upcoming Orbital Flight Test-2 mission later today.

This will be at 5pm UK time (noon ET / 16:00 UTC).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jd6q1q1-T8


Update:

They plan to launch a new, unmanned Starliner capsule to the ISS on 19th May, 6.54 pm eastern time (11.54 pm UK time). Back up is the next day.

As previous established, the valve problem was caused by a combination of the ambient moisture & nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) rocket fuel, creating nitric acid. It was this nitric acid that corroded the aluminium valve housings, preventing them from opening properly. Extensive testing on and off the vehicle has supported this.

They believe they've resolved the valve issue now. Same valve design, but they've improved the seals on the electrical connectors that were a potential path of the moisture ingress.. They're now able to purge the valves with nitrogen to exclude any ambient air & moisture. The loading of NTO will be done closer to launch and they'll be cycling the valves every 2 days to check function from now on.






montymoo

376 posts

166 months

Wednesday 4th May 2022
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
NASA are having a press conference on the Starliner spacecraft and its upcoming Orbital Flight Test-2 mission later today.

This will be at 5pm UK time (noon ET / 16:00 UTC).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jd6q1q1-T8


Update:

They plan to launch a new, unmanned Starliner capsule to the ISS on 19th May, 6.54 pm eastern time (11.54 pm UK time). Back up is the next day.

As previous established, the valve problem was caused by a combination of the ambient moisture & nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) rocket fuel, creating nitric acid. It was this nitric acid that corroded the aluminium valve housings, preventing them from opening properly. Extensive testing on and off the vehicle has supported this.

They believe they've resolved the valve issue now. Same valve design, but they've improved the seals on the electrical connectors that were a potential path of the moisture ingress.. They're now able to purge the valves with nitrogen to exclude any ambient air & moisture. The loading of NTO will be done closer to launch and they'll be cycling the valves every 2 days to check function from now on.
The transport vehicle throwing a wobbly this time laugh


  1. Starliner rollout to the launch complex has been paused due to a hydraulic leak on the
@ulalaunch
transport vehicle. The maintenance team is on the way to assess.

https://twitter.com/BoeingSpace/status/15217790575...




AW111

9,455 posts

132 months

Wednesday 4th May 2022
quotequote all
Good news.

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Thursday 5th May 2022
quotequote all
A protective window cover fell off while they were transporting it as well. After a brief pause, they were able to continue to the pad. Looks like the wind may have blown it off.

https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/152188727...

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Thursday 5th May 2022
quotequote all
Seems like it's held together by sticky tape and chewing gum.

MartG

Original Poster:

20,622 posts

203 months

Thursday 5th May 2022
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
Seems like it's held together by not very sticky tape and chewing gum.
FTFY

Ian974

2,927 posts

198 months

Thursday 5th May 2022
quotequote all
It's fairly easy to for these thing to end up getting a bit tribal, but hopefully this gets there in the end. While the spacex crew launches are starting to get a good track record it's easy to forget they lost a capsule as well on a pad test back in 2019, and for what looks like similar valve problems that starliner has had.

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
quotequote all
They'll be rolling the Atlas V and Starliner out to the launchpad today.

Launch is scheduled for Thursday, 19th May at 11.54 pm UK time (6.54 pm local time).


jingars

1,091 posts

239 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
quotequote all
I assume that this mission does not include an ISS reboost test?

Is there an outline approach as to when they might test that facility, which seems to be one of the few advantages Boeing has over SpaceX and crew dragon?

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
quotequote all
It's a good question. I expect NASA is keen to have that facility, although they can also use the Cygnus resupply spacecraft for that these days. The one currently attached is the first commercial spacecraft to do so.

Everyone will probably just be happy to have Starliner get there and back this time round.