The last we checked the status of the Boeing Starliner mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) had determined the pulsing sound heard aboard the spacecraft was an audio configuration issue.
As I indicated in that report, the Starliner was due to return to Earth on September 6th. Fortunately for Boeing, this portion of the mission was successful.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed uncrewed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, capping a three-month test mission hobbled by technical issues that forced the astronauts it had flown to the International Space Station to remain there until next year.NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who became the first crew to fly Starliner in June, remained on the ISS as Starliner autonomously undocked at 6:04 p.m. ET (2204 GMT) on Friday, beginning a six-hour trek to Earth using maneuvering thrusters that NASA last month deemed too risky for a crew.Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a NASA live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.The spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere at around 11 p.m. ET at orbital speeds of roughly 17,000 miles (27,400 km) per hour. About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a set of airbags moments before touching down at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid desert in New Mexico.
The mission was intended to be a final test flight before NASA certified Starliner for routine missions. However, the thruster issue that prevented the crew from returning with the capsule threw the spacecraft’s certification path into uncertainty.
However, it is important to note that Starliner’s return marked the first time an American capsule returned to Earth on land at a designated space harbor. This is an exceedingly important development. If Boeing resolves the issues and focuses on solid engineering rather than DEI, it can be a real powerhouse in the space race.
Meanwhile, NASA appears to have identified that the problem with the Starliner thrusters is related to overheating.
Those issues appear to be linked to overheating — a result, perhaps, both of the frequency of thruster use and their placement inside heat-retaining shelters on the outside of the spacecraft known as “doghouses.” Bulging seals and insulation shedding appear to restrict the flow of propellant to the RCS thrusters.NASA and Boeing had hoped that CFT [Crew Flight Test] would pave the way for Starliner’s first operational crewed flight. That mission, known as Starliner-1, is tentatively targeted for August 2025. But it’s too soon to tell if Starliner will hit that timeline.”I think we’ll see where we’re at in another month or so, and have a little bit better idea of what the overall schedule will be,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during a post-landing press conference on Saturday morning.That schedule could even include another test flight before Starliner is certified for operational astronaut missions.”I would say it’s probably too early to think about exactly what the next flight looks like. I think we want to take the next step to go look at all the data,” Stich said.
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