Boeing's Starliner Has Landed, but Questions Remain After Imperfect Mission
Passant Rabie - 1h ago
Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/)
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© Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft lands at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft safely touched down at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor.
Boeing’s Starliner successfully touched down yesterday on the sandy surface of the New Mexico desert, marking the completion of the first uncrewed end-to-end test of the spacecraft. It was a picture-perfect landing, but the six-day mission was not without problems.
The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft landed on Wednesday at 4:49 p.m. local time (6:49 p.m. EDT) at at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor after spending six days in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft departed from the space station with more than 600 pounds (270 kilograms) of cargo, including three spent nitrogen oxygen reusable tanks that provided breathable air to ISS crew members.
Four hours after undocking from the orbital outpost, Starliner deployed three parachutes and six airbags to help bring it to a smooth touchdown. A team will now transport the vehicle back to the company’s facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for processing.
The test flight is part of Boeing’s $4.3 billion contract with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to provide rides for its astronauts to and from the ISS. But Boeing had fallen behind on delivering a viable spacecraft after two previous failed test attempts, one in 2019 and one last year. Meanwhile, its commercial counterpart SpaceX (which was awarded a $2.6 billion contract from NASA) has been dropping off astronauts at the ISS for the past two years now.
The completion of this end-to-end test flight, called Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), has been a long time coming, but it’s already clear that there were several problems during the mission.
The Starliner CST-100 spacecraft launched on May 19 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. About 30 minutes after liftoff, one of 12 thrusters responsible for orbital maneuvering malfunctioned, followed by a failure of a backup thruster, as Steve Sitch, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, explained at a post-launch press conference.
An issue with equipment that keeps Starliner cool also emerged shortly into the mission.
When it came time to rendezvous with the ISS, a ring responsible for latching onto the station failed to deploy in the correct manner, causing Starliner to miss its scheduled contact time by over an hour, according to AFP.
And shortly after touchdown, the recovery team detected hydrazine vapor—a flammable oily liquid that’s dangerous to inhale—around the spacecraft. This lingering chemical, which forced the recovery team to temporarily back off, may have been a result of Starliner not burning through all of its propellant, Stich said during a post-touchdown briefing. No leaks were detected, he added.