Boeing Starliner: Everything you need to know about the first crewed flight test

Boeing Starliner is scheduled to take its first astronauts to space on a test mission scheduled for no earlier than May 6th this mission was originally supposed to launch in early 2017 let's dive into everything you need to know about this first crude flight CFT and the messy history of Boeing Starliner CST 100 spacecraft this launch is currently scheduled for May 6th 2024 at 10:34 p.m. eastern time the launch vehicle is ula's atlas 5 rocket lifting off from launch complex 41 at cap Canaveral Florida the spacecraft will take astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station it's currently scheduled to dock with the ISS on May 8th at 12:48 a.m. the mission will last about 8 Days coverage is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on May 6th on NASA TV and NASA's YouTube channel and as always these dates times are very subject to change unlike spacex's crew dragon and previous NASA capsules Mercury Gemini and Apollo Starliner will land on land not in the water it has multiple Landing site options but for this launch the primary Landing site is the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this launch has been delayed for various reasons but most recently just because of traffic at the International Space Station basically the harmony module of the ISS has two docking ports for crew dragon and Starliner however the forward docking port is basically easier to access so they wanted to open that up for Starliner Mission earlier this week there was The Crew 8 crew Dragon at the forward docking port crew Vehicles stay with the crew basically so everyone always has a way to get off space station if there's an emergency and then there was an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon resupply vehicle at the other Port the supply ship successfully undocked on April 28th and then crew eight astronauts undocked from the forward docking port and moved their spacecraft on May 2nd to the other docking port leaving that forward-facing docking port open for Starliner there is a lot of traffic up there Boeing has had two uncrewed test flights before this of1 and of2 and well there were problems let's go through the history of Boeing Starliner and why it has taken so long for this spacecraft to have this first crude flight test after the retirement of the Space Shuttle NASA turned to commercial providers to build the next generation of crew vehicles for transportation to low earth orbit this was called the commercial crew program and it differed from previous models of how NASA built spaceships because yes those were all built by commercial companies but NASA owned and operated the vehicle NASA was deeply involved in every stage of design every aspect of testing launching and operating the spacecraft commercial crew is different NASA has its stringent requirements for the spacecraft that must be met but the contractors own and operate their own spacecraft these are their designs NASA's operating on a fixed price contract model which is cheaper for NASA they're basically paying for the development of these spacecraft and transportation services and then the companies are free to use these crew Vehicles however they wish hence why there are private crew Dragon flight it's worth noting that Boeing has said they don't currently have a commercial use case for Starliner though it is possible that will change once they show it can safely fly with crew so the commercial crew contract was signed in 2014 Boeing got $4.2 billion while SpaceX received 2.6 billion the reasoning for Boeing getting the larger contract according to NASA documents was that at the time William Geren Meer thought that their approach was better both built modules of the ISS so they have extensive experience in taking on this kind of project the initial crew test flight was supposed to be by early 2017 but in 2016 Boeing delayed it to early 2018 and then to late 2018 because of issues with the mass of the spacecraft and then supplier issues it's worth noting that SpaceX was delayed as well a 2017 report from the GAO or government accountability office made it clear that neither crew vehicle would be ready before 2019 which was a good estimate spacex's crude Dragon had its first crude test flight in 2020 the report pointed out that part of the delay was this new way of building spacecraft for NASA because the collaboration required a lot more time than anyone expected because NASA wasn't involved in the development at every level of these vehicles on a day-to-day basis but had very strict requirements that had to be met a 2019 report from the NASA Office of the Inspector General also found that NASA and Boeing amended their contract in 2016 NASA committed to purchasing six total flights in the original contract NASA purchased two total flights and the four additional flights were optional the price was an additional $ 287.4 million and this was kind of just to ensure that Boeing continued developing Starliner and NASA's own oig called this unnecessary so let's move on to the tests the first uncrewed test flight of Boeing Starliner occurred on December 20th 2019 it did not go well it was supposed to dock with the ISS but a series of problems ensured that didn't happen here are just a few of them Starliner onboard timer Drew an incorrect time from the atlas 5 launch vehicle and the spacecraft didn't correctly execute an orbit insertion burn needed to get to the ISS also there's a software issue with the valves that control starliners thrusters another issue there were significant interrupt iions in communication with the spacecraft that affected the ground's ability to direct it and would have impeded the astronaut's ability to communicate with Earth if anybody had been on board this mission was widely considered a failure Dasa officially designated it as a high visibility close call and Boeing had to redo the mission that led to of2 in May 2022 while NASA and Boeing did proclaim the second mission a success it did still have issues the launch was initially scrubbed due to more valve issues on the spacecraft these seemed to be the same valves that had problems during of1 then after a delay of over a year the spacecraft finally launched but it had multiple thrusters fail as well as some other issues during the flight but it did successfully Dock and undock with the ISS and land safely back on Earth hence calling it a success keep in mind that spacex's crew Dragon first crew test flight was May 30th 2020 and the first operational flight crew W was November 16th 2020 during this Gap from the last space shuttle flight in 2011 to spacex's crew Dragon flight the Russian soyou capsule was the only way for astronauts to get to and from the ISS by the end NASA was paying over $90 million per seat for the soy okay so we're at Mid 2022 and Boeing's uncrewed test flight was successful enough to proceed with a crude demonstration that was scheduled for July 21st 2023 but yep you guessed it delayed again during a series of in-depth reviews that were supposed to certify Starliner for this flight NASA uncovered some issues that delayed the launch indefinitely first a parachute issue the soft links that attached the lines of Starliner three main parachutes to their anchor tethers on the capsule had a failure load limit lower than previously thought this meant that if one shoot failed the other two would not be able to handle the capsule's weight not exactly a small problem especially considering the fact that during the pad abort tests they did for Starliner in 2019 only two of the main three parachutes deployed the second issue was that the capsule was covered in tape to protect the wiring well it turns out that this tape is flammable and some of the areas it is in may be subject to higher temperatures than what the tape is rated for according to the press conference on April 25th Boeing had to remove about a mile of this tape from the capsule so now here we are 7 years after the original crude launch date of Boeing Starliner the spacecraft appears to be ready to launch as of the middle of 2023 Boeing had lost $1.5 billion doar on Starliner and it hasn't even flown crew yet as I mentioned Boeing is contracted to fly six total flights to the ISS SpaceX will fly 14 and they have already flown eight this will likely take NASA through 2030 which is when the agency may or may not retire the ISS Space Station's fate is not quite certain as calculated by RS Technica that equals out to about $183 million per seat for Boeing and $88 million per seat for spacex's crew Dragon I want to caveat though that Boeing Starliner can technically fit a possible fifth astronaut into the capsule that spacex's crew Dragon cannot it's not clear though whether NASA will actually assign an additional astronaut to operational Starliner missions or just use that space for more cargo so right now it's better to use the traditional number of four astronauts permission if this test flight goes well and the capsule is certified by NASA then we'd likely see the first operational Starliner launch later this year or early next is it a mess yes do I have confidence that NASA wouldn't launch astronauts in a spacecraft they believe was unsafe also yes NASA has strict guidelines on what odds it will consider acceptable for the loss of the crew for this flight it was 1 over 270 and Boeing exceeded that with a 1 over 295 statistic for loss of crew if you're interested in their numbers compared to SpaceX for their demonstration mission in 2020 it was 1 over 276 so boeings is technically better than spacex's was but also these are just numbers given all of the issues the many many issues that Boeing has been having on their aircraft side they need this flight to go well they're two different divisions within the company but the aircraft negligence is on everyone's mind for the reporters as we cover this launch the viewers as they watch it I imagine it is also present for those at Nasa and Boeing that they have been definely avoiding answering any questions about this as well as for the astronauts who will be in the capsule let's hope this goes well

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Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024