by It’s all systems go for a second attempt to launch Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner crew ship Saturday on a long-awaited test flight to the International Space Station, the capsule’s first to astronauts on board, NASA managers said Friday.
“From the station’s perspective, from our crew, from our ground crews, we’re ready to fly this mission,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s space station program manager. “We are excited to be on the doorstep of this historic mission.”
Liftoff of the Starliner atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. EDT Saturday, about the moment Earth’s rotation brings pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station into alignment with the station’s orbit.
ULA engineers are expected to begin fueling the rocket around 6:30 a.m. NASA Veteran astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williamsacting as commander and co-pilot respectively, plan to strap in three hours later to stay on the rise.
It will take Atlas 5 about 12 minutes to drive the Starliner into orbit, beginning a 25-hour rendezvous with the space station. The baking is expected at 1:50pm on Sunday. If all goes well, Wilmore and Williams will undock and return to Earth on June 10, landing that morning at a desert site in Arizona or New Mexico depending on the weather.
“I talked to them, and they have every confidence in our rocket, they have every confidence in our spacecraft, our operations teams and our management teams,” said astronaut Mike Fincke, training to lead the Starliner mission next year. “They are definitely ready to go.”
Speaking of being ready to “go,” the Starliner will be carrying a last-minute urine processor pump module to replace one that failed aboard the station earlier this week. To make room for the 150-pound component, some of the crew’s clothing and other personal items were taken off the ship, but generic clothing is stored on board the lab and no problems are expected.
“The two separate suitcases that came out contained clothes for both Butch and Sonny and also some … of their own unique hygiene items,” Weigel said. “Of course, we have generic shampoo, soap, etc., on board that can be used straight from the generic supplies. Same with clothes, so that’s what they’ll do.”
The long-awaited flight of the Starliner is a major milestone in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which funded the development of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner ferry to provide post-shuttle transportation to and from the space station without relying on Russia for trips on board. the Soyuz spacecraft.
From the beginning, NASA wanted spacecraft from different vendors to ensure uninterrupted access to the space station even if one ferry had problems for a long time.
SpaceX began flying astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon ship in 2020 and now has 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians in orbit in 13 flights. By contrast, Boeing’s Starliner suffered a steady stream of problems that delayed the first pilot flight by four years, costing the company more than $1 billion to correct.
Wilmore and Williams were finally cleared to launch on May 6. They were strapping in for takeoff when ULA engineers reported problems with a relief valve used to maintain the proper pressure in an oxygen tank inside the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. Not comfortable with valve performance, scrub mission managers ordered.
The Atlas 5 was towed back to the ULA Vertical Integration Facility where a replacement valve was installed, tested and cleaned for flight. Meanwhile, Boeing engineers were evaluating data collected after the crash that revealed a small leak of helium in the plumbing used to pressurize the Starliner’s propulsion system.
The leak was eventually traced to the plumbing leading to a separate reaction control system jet, one of 28 such thrusters located around the Starliner’s drum-shaped service module. After extensive tests and analysis, mission managers the conclusion that the spacecraft could fly safely as is no credible threat to flight safety.
If the leak were to become severe during flight, the helium manifold in question would be isolated, blocking its thrusters. That would prevent a normal entry using more powerful thrusters at the end of the mission, but back-up plans are in place to perform the “stream” deorbit using two long shots of RCS jets unaffected.
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