Crew Flight Test a ‘Tremendously Historical Marker’ for NASA

By Bob Granath

In a crucial milestone for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner launched into the Florida Space Coast skies at 10:52 a.m. EDT on June 5, 2024. The agency now has a second vehicle to send astronauts from American soil to and from the International Space Station. With two agency astronauts aboard, the Crew Flight Test (CFT) lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Plans call for U.S. Capt. Barry “Butch” Wilmore, mission commander, andpilot Sunita “Suni” Williams to validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operational capabilities through rendezvous, docking, re-entry and landing. After about a one-week stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, the crew will land under parachutes with an airbag-assisted landing in the western United States.

“It is another tremendously historical marker in NASA’s space program,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at a news conference on March 22, 2024. “We have two spacecraft now able to get us into orbit and that was the whole point when we started the Commercial Crew Program.”

Referencing the agency’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs, as well as the now operational SpaceX Crew Dragon, he added, “This (Starliner) is (America’s) sixth human rated spacecraft.”

NASA selected Boeing to build their CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX the Crew Dragon to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to low-Earth orbit through the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX began launching crews to the International Space Station in May 2020 with the NASA-SpaceX Demo-2.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, echoed Nelson’s comments.

“We are really excited to have this second transportation system up and available to us,” he said. “This has been our goal all along to have two dissimilar systems, Starliner and (Crew) Dragon.”

A May 6, 2024 launch attempt was postponed due to an anomaly observed in a key component on the Atlas V rocket’s upper stage. During a news conference, United Launch Alliance President and CEO Tory Bruno explained that the delay was required due to a faulty pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the company’s Centaur upper stage of the launch vehicle.

After further testing, ULA managers decided to replace the valve requiring a roll back to the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral. The ULA team then performed leak checks and functional checkouts to ensure its readiness to support the next launch attempt.

Additional work was required following the discovery of a small helium leak in the Starliner’s  service module. Teams completed a follow-on propulsion system assessment to better understand potential helium system impacts on spacecraft’s return.

A June 1 launch attempt was postponed to allow ULA technicians and engineers an opportunity to assess ground support equipment at the launch pad. A ground power supply that provides power to a computer controlling various system functions was identified as the problem and was repaired.

Starliner’s first flight test, Orbital Flight Test, or OFT, was in December 2019. After the mission, a joint NASA-Boeing Independent Review Team was formed to evaluate computer software problems that prevented rendezvous and docking with the space station.

The second uncrewed flight test, OFT-2, launched May 19, 2022, with the Starliner spacecraft successfully launched followed by docking with the International Space Station. Six days later, it made a safe landing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

But, Boeing engineers determined the “soft links” on the suspension lines of the spacecraft\’s three main parachutes failed to meet the load limit required to support a safe landing if one parachute failed. Landing safely with two parachutes is a NASA requirement.

Additionally, post-flight investigations determined that the protective tape covering several wiring harnesses in the Starliner were flammable.

At the news briefing, Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and Starliner Program manager, explained that in recent months the NASA-Boeing team has confirmed the safety of the spacecraft including a test that certified the parachute system is ready for flight.

“We’ve been going through a number of reviews,” he said. “Problems with parachutes and tape flammability have been solved. The crew is anxious to fly and we are anxious to fly.”

The Crew

CFT commander Wilmore was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, but was raised in Mount Juliet. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville where he was captain of the university’s football team..  He went on to receive a master’s in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. As a Naval aviator, he flew numerous aircraft, many launching from aircraft carriers.

Selected as a NASA astronaut in July 2000, Wilmore was pilot of the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station in November 2009. On Sept. 25 2014, he was a member of the Soyuz TMA-14M crew that launched to the space station for Expedition 41, returning March 2, 2015.

During the March 13, 2024 episode of Houston, We Have a Podcast, Wilmore and Williams discussed being the first to fly the Boeing Starliner.

“The opportunity for a first flight of a spacecraft comes around only so often,” Wilmore said. “We are now on the cusp of launching and all the work that comes into that development. Then we actually get to ride the elevator up to the top level (of the launch pad tower) and climb on board. It’s amazing.”

Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown.  At the U.S. Naval Academy, she was awarded a bachelor’s degree in physical science. She went on to receive a master’s in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. In May 1987, Williams was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Navy and she was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989. During her tenure, she logged more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft.

Williams was selected to be a NASA astronaut in August 1998. She launched to the International Space Station Dec. 10, 2006 on STS-116 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. As part of the Expedition 14 and 15 crews, she spent 192 days in space. For her second mission, she launched July 15, 2012 aboard Soyuz TMA-5M as part of Expeditions 32 and 33, returning Nov. 19, 2012. During those missions, she conducted seven spacewalks, totaling more than 50 hours outside the station.

During the recent podcast, Williams noted that she and Wilmore have had a hand in final development of the Starliner spacecraft.

“We’ve had a hand in developing all sorts of parts of it, from procedures to hardware to software,” she said. “I think seeing it all come together is really special.”

The Spacecraft

The Boeing Starliner is 15 feet in diameter, with the crew module and service module measuring 16.5 feet tall and weighing 29,000 pounds. It can hold a crew of up to seven people, but for missions to the International Space Station, it will carry a crew of four and about 220 pounds of cargo.

Starliner is launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with two solid rocket boosters. With the Starliner atop, the launch vehicle stands 171 feet tall, is 12.5 feet in diameter and weighs 46,678 pounds. The first stage burns RP-1, highly refined kerosene, and liquid oxygen. With its two solid rocket boosters, the Atlas develops 1,608,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff. The twin-engine Centaur upper stage uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

The Starliner rolled out of the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 16, 2024. The spacecraft will be transported to ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and was lifted and connected to the Atlas V rocket that will send Willmore and Williams to the space station.

The Mission

The Boeing Starliner will autonomously dock to the forward-facing port of the Harmony module on the space station. During that time, the crew plans to evaluate the spacecraft, its displays, and cargo transfer systems.

Once aboard the space station, Wilmore and Williams will be welcomed aboard the space station by the seven-members of Expedition 71. This includes members of the Crew-8, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin of Russia who lifted off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on March 3, 2024. Also on board will be with Roscosmos cosmonaut Nikolai Chub, who arrived on Sept. 15, 2023 aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 15, 2023. Launched from Baikonur on March 23, 2024 aboard Soyuz MS-25 are NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonaut OlegNovitsky.

After about a week, the Starliner and its crew will undock from the space station for its return to Earth. Wilmore andWilliams will assess manual piloting of the spacecraft before switching back to autonomous operations.

During re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, the crew expect to feel loads of up to 3.5 g. The spacecraft’s forward heat shield will be jettisoned after re-entry, having completed its work and three parachutes slow the spacecraft before touching down on a designated landing zone in the western United States. Starliner can touch down at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico,the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, Willcox Playa in Arizona or Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Once safely on the ground, recovery crews plan to place a tent around Starliner and pump cool air into the spacecraft. The hatch will be opened within an hour after landing allowing the astronauts to exit the vehicle. Teams will begin removing experiments for transport to NASA’s facilities. Wilmore and Williams will be transported to a NASA aircraft for their return to Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Following landing and recovery, NASA will review mission data from the mission to certify that the spacecraft and its systems are ready to support crew rotation missions to the space station.

“We expect to complete certifications reviews for Starliner 1 by the end of this year,” Nappi said.

In 2025, NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 flight is scheduled to launch NASA Astronauts Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke, along with Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Kimiya Yui of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency for a six-month stay aboard the space station.

Before the CFT launch, Williams commented on how NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is helping pave the way for the agency’s future initiatives.

“It’s successful and it’s innovative,” she said. “There’s lots of new technologies and ingenuity to making it happen. It’s different than how we’ve done it before, but that’s OK. It’s the next steps, and it’s getting more and more people to space. (Commercial Crew) allows NASA to focus on space exploration to the Moon and Mars.”

© 2024 SpaceAgeChronicle.com All Rights Reserved

Starliner Lifts Off to the International Space Station

Check out this short video of the liftoff of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024. Video courtesy of NASA