A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired and launched safely on Wednesday Boeing‘has been long postponed Starliner crew ferry into space for its first piloted test flight. But flight controllers had to intervene late in the day to fix additional, unexpected helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion system.
The Starliner was launched with a small but persistent helium leak in a specific ‘manifold’ – that is, pipes that supply pressurized gas to valves that operate one specific thruster. The launch was delayed several weeks for troubleshooting, but managers concluded that the spacecraft could be safely flown as is.
Late Wednesday, flight controllers discovered signs of two more helium leaks in different parts of the ship’s pipes and took steps to isolate the affected pipes. That stopped the leak but disabled six of the 28 reaction control system jets in four propulsion modules mounted on the Starliner’s service module.
Mission managers said before launch that backup plans had been developed in case the original leak worsened dramatically, and NASA commentators emphasized that Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams were not in danger, and that plans were in place were developed to manage the mission. the leaks as the mission continues.
But the troubleshooting put a damper on the elation that followed a perfect launch. The crew’s workhorse Atlas 5 rocket roared to life at 10:52 p.m. EDT, followed moments later by the ignition of two tethered solid-fuel boosters to kick off a planned eight-day test flight.
Generating a combined thrust of 1.6 million pounds, the 200-foot-tall Atlas 5 climbed majestically skyward from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, arcing northeast on a trajectory that matched the space station’s orbital path – a requirement for a meeting place. missions.
“We all know that when the going gets tough, and it often does, the tough gets going,” Wilmore radioed controllers from the Starliner’s cockpit before launch. ‘And that is true. And Suni and I are honored to share this dream of space flight with all of you. So let’s get started! Let’s put some fire in this rocket and push it to the sky!’
He got his wish.
The Atlas 5 dropped off the Starliner at a speed just below what is needed to reach Earth orbit, a precaution to ensure the crew ship would re-enter and land safely even if a major problem would shut down its own propulsion system. But there were no problems, and a thruster firing 31 minutes after takeoff completed the ascent phase of the mission, putting the ship into its planned orbit.
The astronauts then spent the afternoon testing the manual controls and overall operation of the Starliner before taking a moment to congratulate Boeing, United Launch Alliance and NASA on a smooth ascent to space. Wilmore could barely contain his enthusiasm.
“It’s just a great, great spacecraft,” he said of the Starliner. “Boeing has done a great job. And so far, as I said, things have been great, it’s been great, so to speak. And so kudos to everyone. ULA? I love you. Boeing? I love you… It’s beautiful.”
But shortly before the crew called it a day and prepared to go to sleep, the helium problem surfaced. Flight controllers promised Wilmore a detailed update after the crew woke up Thursday. Presumably the helium leak can be contained, allowing a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station just after noon.
The highly anticipated flight marked the first launch of an Atlas 5 with astronauts on board and the first for the Atlas family of rockets since astronaut Gordon Cooper took off just a few miles away on the final flight of the Mercury program 61 years ago.
It also marks the first piloted flight of the Starliner, Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational, lower-cost spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit in 13 flights, including 12 to the space station , since a first piloted test flight in May 2020.
Despite a bigger NASA contract, Boeing’s Starliner is four years behind SpaceX in getting astronauts to space. But Wilmore and Williams say the spacecraft is now safer and more capable thanks to numerous upgrades and repairs.
“I’m not going to say it was easy. It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster,” Williams said before the crew’s first launch attempt. But, she added, “we knew we were going to get here eventually. It’s a solid spaceship. I don’t think I would really want to be in any other place right now.”
As Wilmore and Williams approach the space station on Thursday, SpaceX plans to launch its massive Super Heavy-Starship rocket on its fourth test flight from the company’s “Starbase” facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The booster will attempt a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after takeoff, while the Starship’s upper stage will launch into space, orbiting halfway around the planet, before returning and crashing into the Indian Ocean.
On three previous flights, both stages were destroyed in flight, but performance improved dramatically with each launch as upgrades and repairs were implemented, and SpaceX expects more of the same with the fourth test flight.
The Super Heavy has nothing to do with Boeing’s Starliner or the space station, but NASA will be paying close attention as the agency plans to use a variant of the Starship to ferry astronauts to the moon’s surface in its Artemis program. Perfecting the Super Heavy booster and the Starship’s upper stage are crucial to these plans.
Wilmore and Williams plan to do just that docking at the space station and be welcomed aboard by cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin, along with NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy Dyson.
Kononenko on Tuesday recorded his 1,000th day in space across five flights, underscoring his title as the world’s most experienced astronaut, 220 days after the previous mark of 879 days set by cosmonaut Gennady Padalka in 2015.
The Starliner will be undocked for now and return to Earth on June 14, but the flight could be extended depending on weather at desert landing sites in the western United States.
NASA funded the development of Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner to end the agency’s sole post-shuttle dependence on the Russian Soyuz for flights to the space station. Two spacecraft from different suppliers were tasked to ensure the agency could launch crews to the outpost even if one company’s ferry ship were grounded for whatever reason.
Boeing initially planned to launch the Starliner on its first piloted flight in 2020, but the spacecraft encountered multiple problems during an initial uncrewed launch in December 2019. The company resolved these issues and opted to conduct a second uncrewed flight at its own expense launch, but subsequently ran out of problems with corroded propulsion system valves.
A second, successful, unmanned test flight was eventually launched in May 2022. But after the spacecraft returned to Earth, engineers discovered that protective tape around electrical lines inside the ship could pose a fire hazard. Then they discovered possible problems with parachute harness connectors. When all was said and done, the first piloted flight was pushed to 2023.
Wilmore and Williams first strapped in for the launch on May 6, but were grounded due to problems with a pressure relief valve in the Centaur upper stage of Atlas 5.
Then a more vexing problem arose: a small but persistent helium leak in the Starliner’s propulsion system that affected one of the 24 low-power maneuver engines in the capsule’s service module. Mission managers ultimately decided to launch the spacecraft as is, concluding that the leak did not pose any credible safety risk.
The launch was rescheduled for June 1, but the crew’s second countdown stopped at T-minus three minutes and 50 seconds when one of ULA’s ground launch sequencer computers, one of three network systems controlling the final moments of the countdown, failed to run in sync with its counterparts.
The problem was traced to a faulty power supply. Work to install and test replacement hardware has postponed the Starliner’s third launch attempt until Wednesday.
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