Russian cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov captured this view of the Starliner spacecraft approaching the International Space Station. Credit: Sergei Korsakov / Roscosmos
The capsule of the Boeing Starliner crew finally reached the International Space Station on Friday night with a meeting and docking, overcoming several technical problems to achieve the long-awaited goal for the spacecraft before NASA approved it to transport astronauts to the research complex.
The crew capsule docked at the front end of the Harmony module at the station at 20:28 EDT Friday (0028 GMT Saturday), using vision-based navigation to navigate autonomously to the docking target.
There were no astronauts on the Starliner spacecraft, which docked on Friday night, but the manned spacecraft was designed to transport people to and from the space station. The Boeing crew launched a Thursday night from Cape Canaveral on top of the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, launching the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, a chew-shaped capsule cruise cruise.
The Boeing Starliner slid to a docking station next to SpaceX’s Dragon crew ferry, marking the first time two NASA merchant crew members had capsules attached to the station at the same time.
The jump marks a “very historic day” for NASA’s crew crew program, said Steve Stitch, NASA’s manager who oversees the agency’s fixed-price crew contracts with Boeing and SpaceX. The contracts were signed after the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle fleet, which left the United States without its own ability to launch the crew.
“Our goal was to have two redundant crew transport systems,” Stitch said. “That was our goal from the beginning, and today that goal came true when Starliner landed.”
NASA is investing about $ 5 billion in the design and development of the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner crew capsules, plus another billion in transportation services after the spacecraft was certified for human flight.
The companies are also investing an unspecified level of private funding, a requirement of the Public-Private Partnership Agreement applied by NASA’s 2010 Crew Crew Program.
The Starliner program is running years late after a test flight in 2019 – known as OFT-1 – which was interrupted by software problems, preventing the spacecraft from reaching the space station. Boeing tried to rerun the test flight in 2019 last August, but officials canceled the launch after finding jammed valves in the capsule’s propulsion system.
After software and valve issues were resolved, the Boeing Starliner crew capsule took off on Thursday, arrived safely in orbit and made its way to the space station. The spacecraft dealt with several technical problems during its voyage to the orbital research post.
The main technical problems so far of the OFT-2 mission include damage to four Starliner rocket jets, pressure spikes in two coolant circuits and a problem with the capsule docking system found just before the station’s space connection.
The 15-foot (4.6-meter) Starliner spacecraft held a position about 32 feet (10 meters) from the station for more than an hour, a delay caused mainly by a problem with the backup system of NASA’s designed docking mechanism on the capsule’s nose. crew. The ground controllers retracted and extended the docking ring again, reset the system, and then gave the green light to Starliner to press for docking.
Starliner’s thermal imaging navigation sensors – part of the Vision-based electro-optical sensor tracking system or VESTA system – collected data on the range and closing speed between the spacecraft and the space station.
“The technology around VESTA is truly amazing. It really was something to watch, “said Mark Napie, Boeing Starliner’s program manager. “And it was really humiliating to watch this vehicle sit there for a while until it was time to enter. So very, very happy people on the Boeing program today for what we saw.
Contact and shooting.
The Boeing Starliner crew capsule arrived for the first time on the International Space Station, fulfilling a primary goal for this unmanned orbital flight test. pic.twitter.com/chMvuu4TaO
– Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 21, 2022
The seven-man crew of the International Space Station monitored the spacecraft’s approach and tested their ability to send commands to Starliner via a two-way radio communication system. Astronauts Kel Lindgren and Bob Hines plan to open hatches and enter the cabin of the Starliner crew on Saturday.
Lindgren and Hines will inspect the inside of the capsule and conduct voice checks through the spacecraft’s communications system. The astronauts will also unpack about 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of food, electronics and consumables delivered from the Starliner test flight and replace it with a cargo labeled to return to Earth.
For the OFT-2 mission, Boeing placed an instrumented test dummy at Starliner’s command post to gather data on the environment astronauts will see in future missions. The model, named “Rosie” after World War II icon Rosie Zakaletetsa, wears a blue Boeing suit.
Starliner will leave the space station no earlier than May 25 to return to Earth, aiming for a parachute and hovercraft landing at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
NASA and Boeing engineers will evaluate the results of the OFT-2 mission before approving the launch of the Crew Flight Test, Starliner’s first mission with astronauts on board.
Officials said before the launch of OFT-2 that Boeing aims to have the crew’s next capsule ready for flight by the end of the year, but managers will not commit to a launch schedule until they evaluate the results of the unmanned demonstration mission.
“We wouldn’t be here right now if we weren’t confident it would be a successful mission,” Butch Wilmore, one of NASA’s Starliner astronauts, told a news conference before OFT-2. startup. “But there are always unknowns. This is what has always led us historically. These are the things we don’t know or expect. “
Astronaut from the European Space Agency Samantha Christophoretti took this photo of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Credit: Samantha Christophoretti / European Space Agency / NASA
While the SpaceX Dragon capsule was launched with astronauts for the first time in May 2020, Boeing’s Starliner was stopped for two and a half years after the shortened OFT1 mission. Under the terms of its contract with NASA, Boeing was on the hook for delays, charging $ 595 million to pay for the new OFT-2 test mission.
SpaceX jumps its Dragon capsule with a man-made estimate from the space station in March 2019 during an unlimited test flight similar to Starliner’s OFT-2 mission.
After OFT-2 and the next test flight with astronauts, NASA plans to certify the Starliner spacecraft for regular rotational missions of the crew to the space station. The agency plans to alternate between the Starliner and Dragon spacecraft, providing a “different reservation” for the crew’s access to the station.
“We will focus on this mission, the objectives of the flight tests, as well as prepare for the purposes of the flight tests for the flight test of the crew, which aims to certify at the end, so we as NASA can have regularly scheduled various flights to The International Space Station, “said Mike Finke, another NASA astronaut following the Starliner program. “So we can get on, one flight with Boeing, one flight with SpaceX.
But Starliner’s OFT-2 mission still has several objectives to meet before landing in New Mexico. And engineers will analyze data from the spacecraft’s engines, cooling system and docking mechanism to make sure these problems will not affect the crew’s test flight.
Napi said the engineers focused on about three “plausible” reasons for shutting down two of the 12 stern-facing orbital maneuvers and position control, or OMAC, Starliner service module engines burn slightly during orbit. after the launch on Thursday. He did not provide details on the potential causes.
Two smaller engines of the reaction control system stopped working during Starliner’s meeting with the space station on Friday. But the spacecraft has “tons of reserves,” Stitch said, and ground crews in Houston have released Starliner to continue their approach to the 450-ton space station.
The Starliner spacecraft service module has four large launch cessation engines that are only used in the event of an accident during space launch. The service module has 20 OMAC engines – 12 facing the stern – and 28 smaller reaction control jets used for guidance. Another 12 Starliner reusable crew module pushers will keep the capsule in the correct position during re-entry after disposing of the disposable service module at the end of the mission.
The cooling system controls the temperature of the Starliner spacecraft. The Starliner spacecraft has two coolant circuits, each of which uses a CFC-like fluid to transfer the heat generated by the spacecraft to the radiators.
Stitch said moisture may have entered the coolant, leading to higher pressures and lower-than-expected temperatures in the thermal control circuit. Mission control reacts before the problem because it is serious.
“They managed to bypass these radiators, to heat the liquid,” Stitch said. “It simply came to our notice then. And then they used this technique on both cycles at different times to control the docking sequence today, and it works very well. We had a lot of margin. Both cycles were …
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