31.03.2023
Boeing's 1st astronaut flight to space delayed until July
Boeing's first launch of astronauts has been delayed again, this time until July
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Boeing’s first launch of astronauts has been delayed again, this time until July.
NASA announced the latest postponement Wednesday, saying more time is needed to certify and test the Starliner capsule's parachute system before the spacecraft blasts off with two test pilots. Additional software testing is also underway.
Boeing already was running years behind schedule when it had to repeat its test flight without a crew to the International Space Station because of software and other problems. The first was in 2019 and the second in 2022.
“We know that what we’re doing is extremely important, launching humans in space," Boeing's Mark Nappi told reporters. "So we’ll take our time and we'll make sure that everybody is confident with the work that’s been done.”
Liftoff is currently targeted for no earlier than July 21 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Starliner capsule will ride atop United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX launched its seventh NASA crew earlier this month.
Quelle: abcNews
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NASA, Boeing Prepare for Starliner Flight This Summer
NASA and Boeing now are targeting no earlier than Friday, July 21, for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station, pending coordination for the U.S Eastern Range availability.
The new target date provides NASA and Boeing the necessary time to complete subsystem verification testing and close out test flight certification products and aligns with the space station manifest and range launch opportunities.
The goal of CFT is to test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system with crew onboard, including the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, from prelaunch to docking and undocking to landing and recovery. Following a successful test flight, Boeing will work to finalize operational readiness for its post-certification missions and NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular, crewed missions to the space station.
Certification Process
Approximately 90% of the certification products required for the flight test are complete. NASA and Boeing anticipate closure on remaining CFT certification products this spring after ongoing verification testing of several subsystems is complete, including testing on the spacecraft’s backup manual flight mode for added redundancy in cases of emergency.
Starliner Status
The Starliner spacecraft build is complete. The team is now working through final interior closeouts of the spacecraft and wrapping up integrated testing. The loading of cargo apart from some late-stow items also is complete. The next major hardware milestones are specific to the launch campaign timeline, such as spacecraft fueling and rolling out to the launch site.
Atlas V Status
NASA completed its rocket readiness assessment, which evaluates all CFT launch vehicle segment flight critical items prior to integration activities. All rocket hardware is at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, awaiting processing ahead of rocket stacking at the launch site.
Crew Readiness
The NASA astronauts who will fly on CFT recently completed the critical Crew Equipment Interface Test. Conducted in two parts during February and March, the test allowed astronauts to perform hands-on training with the tools, equipment and hardware they will use on orbit. In the first part, they worked with the Starliner team to perform in-cabin checkouts, including adjusting the spacecraft seats, inspecting spacecraft interfaces, examining cargo, and conducting floor panel and side hatch operations. The second part of the test included the astronauts maneuvering inside the cabin with cargo installed in the spacecraft.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 27.05.2023
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NASA safety panel skeptical of Starliner readiness for crewed flight
WASHINGTON — The chair of a NASA safety panel urged the agency not to rush into a crewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle, calling for an independent “deep look” at technical issues with the spacecraft.
Speaking at a May 25 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, Patricia Sanders, chair of the committee, expressed skepticism that NASA and Boeing will be able to close known issues with Starliner in time for a launch currently scheduled for as soon as July 21.
“There remains a long line of NASA processes still ahead to determine launch readiness” for the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, the first crewed flight of the spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on board. “That should not be flown until safety risks can either be mitigated or accepted, eyes wide open, with an appropriately compelling technical rationale.”
She noted the projected launch date, but added it was simply an “opportunity in the launch schedule” and manifest of planned missions to the station. The current launch date for CFT would fit between a cargo Dragon mission, slated to depart the ISS in early July, and the Crew-7 Crew Dragon mission planned for launch in mid-August. That date, she said, is “not necessarily an acknowledgment of readiness to conduct that flight test.”
When NASA and Boeing announced March 29 the July launch date for CFT, a three-month slip, officials said it would give them more time to complete certification of the spacecraft, notably its parachutes. The delay would also allow them to check avionics systems in the spacecraft after finding a logic error in one unit.
Parachute certification remains a “pacing item” for the launch, Sanders said, but also brought up several other issues, some of which she said were only recently revealed through analysis of data products as part of the certification process. She mentioned specific open risks of ongoing integrated software testing as well as battery sidewall rupture concerns, a risk accepted “for the interim only.”
“It is imperative that NASA not succumb to pressure, even unconsciously, to get CFT launched without adequately addressing all the remaining impediments to certification,” she said, adding that any decision to accept risk for the short-duration CFT flight should not justify accepting it for later operational flights lasting up to six months.
“Given the number of remaining challenges to certification of Starliner, we strongly encourage NASA to step back and take a measured look at the remaining body of work with respect to flying CFT,” she concluded, arguing that the agency should bring in an independent team, such as from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, “to take a deep look at the items on the path to closure.”
Neither Boeing nor NASA have provided many updates on the status of preparations for the CFT mission. A Boeing website devoted to Starliner updates was last updated with the March announcement of the new July launch date.
At a May 16 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee, Phil McAlister, director of the commercial space division in NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, reiterated the planned CFT launch date of no earlier than July 21. “We’ve made a lot of good progress over the last three or four months on the hardware. I think the hardware is in good shape,” he said.
However, he said that certification work continued on the vehicle and was the pacing item for CFT. Parachute verification was the “long pole” in completing that work, with more parachute testing planned before the mission. “That could potentially affect the date of the flight,” he said. “At this point, if the tests go nominally, we should have plenty of time to make the July 21 date. But, you never know. That’s why we do these tests.”
Quelle: SN
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Update: 2.06.2023
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Boeing faces 'emerging issues' ahead of Starliner capsule's 1st crewed flight in July, NASA says
Starliner's Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off on July 21.
Boeing still has some work to do to get its astronaut taxi ready for its first crewed jaunt this summer.
That mission, called Crew Flight Test (CFT), will launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule no earlier than July 21.
Boeing aims to fuel Starliner next month in preparation for liftoff. During a "checkpoint review" conducted last Thursday (May 25), however, the company and NASA identified a few "emerging issues that need a path to closure" to resolve before taking that big step, according to NASA.
For example, teams will replace a bypass valve in the system that helps cool Starliner's avionics, NASA officials wrote in an update on Friday (May 26). Such work is expected to take just a week and won't affect the planned CFT timeline, they added.
Technicians and engineers are also assessing whether a certain kind of tape used to protect some of Starliner's wires poses a flammability risk. And Boeing and NASA teams are reassessing the efficiency of some joints in Starliner's parachute system "based on new data reviews as part of the ongoing design certification process," agency officials said in Friday's statement.
"We are taking a methodical approach to the first crewed flight of Starliner incorporating all of the lessons learned from the various in-depth testing campaigns, including Starliner's flight tests and the agency's verification efforts," Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in the same statement.
"All Orbital Flight Test-2 anomalies are closed," Stich added, referring to Starliner's first test mission, a successful uncrewed flight to the ISS that launched in May 2022. "In addition to the closeout of ongoing work, the team remains vigilant on tracking new technical issues as we complete certification for crewed flight."
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore (at right) and pilot Suni Williams outside the Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 18, 2022. (Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
Earlier this year, Boeing and NASA said that CFT was on track to launch in April. But in late March, the target date was pushed back to no earlier than July 21, a move made to accommodate further analyses of Starliner and its systems and an anticipated busy spring at the ISS.
For example, Axiom Space sent the four-astronaut Ax-2 mission to the orbiting lab this month, and SpaceX plans to launch a robotic Dragon cargo craft to the ISS on Saturday (June 3).
NASA and Boeing have completed most of the prep work needed to get Starliner ready for CFT, agency officials said in Friday's update. But another delay isn't out of the question, they added.
"Crew safety remains the highest priority for NASA and its industry providers, and emerging issues are not uncommon in human spaceflight, especially during development," Stich said. "The combined team is resilient and resolute in their goal of flying crew on Starliner as soon as it is safe to do so. If a schedule adjustment needs to be made in the future, then we will certainly do that as we have done before. We will only fly when we are ready."
Quelle: SC
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Update: 3.06.2023
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Boeing's Starliner crewed test flight delayed indefinitely because of safety concerns
The first crewed flight test for Boeing's Starliner capsule, originally slated to fly to the International Space Station next month, is facing more hardware-related delays – this time indefinitely.
On Thursday, company and NASA officials announced newly discovered safety concerns will keep the capsule, developed under a multibillion-dollar contract with the agency, grounded through the summer at the very least. Mark Nappi, vice president of Boeing's Starliner program, said in a teleconference Thursday that new findings with a critical system on parachutes and the flammability of tape used to secure wiring harnesses throughout the spacecraft were discovered last week during a joint pre-flight review with NASA.
Nappi told reporters fabric links that join the parachutes to the lines of the spacecraft, called soft link joints, need to be replaced and possibly recertified to withstand heavier loads and stresses to ensure crew safety.
"They were tested recently because of a discovery that we found during the review process where we believed that the data was recorded incorrectly," Nappi said. "We tested (the soft links), and sure enough, they did fail at the lower limit."
NASA's Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program, called the review process comprehensive, saying, "Some of the things that we're seeing here were actually things that were done many years ago. The parachute system has not changed."
Stich said the issue was present for Starliner's uncrewed flight test to the ISS last year, but it wasn't until last week's detailed review ahead of flying a crew that the issue with the link joints was discovered. The capsule's first crewed flight, called the Crew Flight Test or CFT, is tasked with taking astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams on a short-duration mission to the ISS.
"I wouldn't go indict anything on NASA or the Boeing safety process because we have these late findings. It's just now we're getting to the reviews of some systems," Stich said. "I'm seeing us find things and make changes to the vehicle and do additional testing and engineering where we need to, and that's what's required to go fly safely."
The second problem found last week is more extensive since the tape used to protect Starliner's wiring harnesses from nicks or abrasions runs for hundreds of feet through several of the spacecraft's internal systems.
"There is a lot of tape on the wire harnesses," Nappi said. "We're looking at solutions that would provide for potentially another type of wrapping over the existing tape in the most vulnerable areas that reduces the risk of a fire hazard."
Alongside the new safety issues, Boeing teams also found a faulty valve that had to be replaced prior to loading propellants on the vehicle, which was slated to happen in the next few weeks to make a targeted July 21 liftoff of CFT aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
Instead, Boeing teams are now standing down from all launch preparations.
This latest months-long delay comes after a decision last March to shuffle the Crew Flight Test to the summer to give NASA more time to certify 330 requirements for Starliner to fly humans. The same requirements applied to SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which NASA also selected to take astronauts to the ISS after the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. Both companies were selected for multibillion-dollar contracts nearly a decade ago; Boeing received $4.2 billion while SpaceX was awarded $2.6 billion for Crew Dragon.
The investment paid off in SpaceX's case when the company first launched Crew Dragon with two astronauts in May 2020. Since then, the company has flown seven crewed missions to the space station for NASA, two private missions for Axiom Space, and one privately crewed mission to orbit.
Starliner has only launched twice on uncrewed demonstration missions, the first of which in late 2019 failed to reach a proper orbit and required an emergency landing.
"Our ultimate goal is to have one SpaceX and one Boeing flight per year to rotate our crews to station, and so we support Boeing," Stich said. "We're doing everything we can during the investigation of each of these issues and trying to get to flight as soon as we can when it's safe to do so."
According to Stich, the next opportunity to launch Boeing's mission won't be until later this fall, but that hinges on Boeing being able to rectify the issues in time to obtain certification from NASA to support crewed flight.
"You could say we're disappointed because it means a delay, but the team is proud that we're making the right choices," Nappi said. "Bottom line here: safety is always our top priority. It's always been that way with human spaceflight; that drives this decision."
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 2.08.2023
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NASA, Boeing to Provide Progress Update on Starliner Crew Flight Test
NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 7, to provide an update on the first astronaut flight of the company’s CST-100 Starliner to and from the International Space Station.
Audio of the teleconference will stream live on NASA’s website.
Leaders will discuss spacecraft and team readiness ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test – the final flight test prior to regular crewed missions to the space station on the next-generation system.
The briefing participants are:
- Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
- Joel Montalbano, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
- Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, CST-100 Starliner, Boeing
To participate in the call, media must RSVP no later than one hour prior to the start of the event to: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
The Starliner spacecraft will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, returning about a week later in White Sands, New Mexico.
The flight will carry two NASA astronaut test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on the demonstration flight to prove the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner spacecraft.
Following a successful test flight with astronauts, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to and from the space station.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 9.08.2023
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Boeing's 1st astronaut flight bumped into next year, more repairs needed
Already running years behind, Boeing's first astronaut flight is now off until at least next March
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Already running years behind, Boeing’s first astronaut flight is now off until at least next March.
Problems with the parachute lines and flammable tape surfaced during final reviews in late spring, ahead of what should have been a July launch for the Starliner capsule. Boeing said Monday that it should be done removing the tape in the coming weeks. But a redesigned parachute system won’t be ready until December.
If a parachute drop test goes well late this year, company officials said the spacecraft should be ready to carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as early as March. Starliner’s first crew flight will need to fit around other space station traffic, however, so it’s too early to set even a tentative date, according to officials.
To ensure there are no other problems, NASA and Boeing are conducting independent reviews.
Boeing program manager Mark Nappi said technicians are almost halfway done peeling off flammable tape that was used to protect capsule wiring. Tape that cannot be removed from vulnerable spots will be covered with a protective coating.
The original guidelines for usage of the tape were confusing, according to company and NASA officials, but they later determined it could not be used in some areas because it was flammable.
The parachute issue will take longer to resolve. Part of the parachute lines known as soft links did not meet safety standards, having gotten past improper testing years ago. A new, more robust design will be incorporated into upgraded parachutes already in the works.
“There’s always the mystery of something else that can pop up,” Nappi told reporters. But given the current situation, “we have a pretty good schedule laid out” to launch as early as March.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX nearly a decade ago to deliver astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is now three years into its taxi service. Boeing has only had a pair of Starliner space test flights with no one aboard.
NASA said it still wants two competing crew launchers, even as the projected 2030 end of the space station program draws ever closer. The goal is to fly one Boeing and one SpaceX crew flight each year.
Quelle: abcNews