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Boeing Starliner crew aboard ISS after challenging docking

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Reuters

<p>A Boeing Starliner capsule carrying its first ever astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday after overcoming unexpected challenges arising from thruster malfunctions and helium leaks.</p><p>The spaceship dubbed &quot;Calypso&quot; rendezvoused with the orbital lab at 1:34 pm ET (1734 GMT) over the southern Indian Ocean, allowing crewmates Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to enter a while later.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re ready to get to work,&quot; declared Wilmore, while Williams performed a little dance to celebrate the arrival, the third stay aboard the ISS for both of the ex-Navy test pilots.</p><p>Docking was delayed by more than an hour after some of Starliner&#x27;s thrusters that provide fine maneuvering initially failed to kick in, forcing the astronauts to perform a &quot;hot fire&quot; to activate them.</p><p>&quot;I would say Starliner made us work a little harder to get docked,&quot; Steve Stich, program manager for NASA&#x27;s Commercial Crew Program, later told reporters, explaining that ground teams now had to work to understand the issues that had emerged during flight.</p><p>Wilmore and Williams are the first crew to fly Starliner, which Boeing and NASA are hoping to certify for regular rides to the ISS -- a role SpaceX has been fulfilling for the past four years.</p><p>The spaceship blasted off from Florida atop a United Launch Alliance Altas V rocket on Wednesday following years of delays and safety scares -- as well as two recently aborted launch attempts that came as astronauts were already strapped in and ready to go.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/3/21/experiments-proposed-by-filipino-students-performed-on-iss-2059">Experiments proposed by Filipino students performed on ISS</a></div><div><strong>LEAKS AND THRUSTER PROBLEMS</strong></div><p>Prior to launch, it was known that there was one helium leak affecting Starliner.</p><p>While non-combustible, the helium provides pressure to the propulsion system. But it was determined the leak was too small to cause much of an impact.</p><p>During the flight, however, two more leaks emerged, and another was discovered after docking for a total of four.</p><p>That makes it more likely that a common issue is at play, rather than a one-off fault like a bad rubber seal.</p><p>Engineering teams believe there is more than enough helium left in reserve, and Starliner won&#x27;t leak anymore while docked to the ISS.</p><p>But the issue will have to be monitored and further studied in other Starliners under construction at Boeing&#x27;s factory, said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of  Boeing&#x27;s Commercial Crew Program.</p><p>And while four of the five thrusters that failed were subsequently revived, it&#x27;s not fully understood what triggered the fault in the first place, said Stich.</p><p>Teething issues with new spaceships aren&#x27;t uncommon, he stressed. The Space Shuttle program in its early days faced its share of problems, as did SpaceX&#x27;s Dragon program in the early 2010s, when that vessel was a cargo-only spaceship.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/3/7/first-arab-woman-to-graduate-nasa-training-shoots-for-the-moon-1828">First Arab woman to graduate NASA training shoots for the Moon</a></div><div><strong>SELECT CLUB OF SPACESHIPS</strong></div><p>Starliner is just the sixth type of US-built spaceship to fly NASA astronauts, following the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s and 1970s, the Space Shuttle from 1981 to 2011, and SpaceX&#x27;s Crew Dragon from 2020.</p><p>The United States was left reliant on Russian Soyuz rockets to go to the ISS between 2011 and 2020.</p><p>Boeing&#x27;s program faced setbacks ranging from a software bug that put the spaceship on a bad trajectory on its first uncrewed test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical tape after the second.</p><p>A successful mission would help dispel the bitter taste left by the years of safety scares and delays, and provide Boeing a much-needed reprieve from the intense safety concerns surrounding its passenger jets.</p><p>During their roughly weeklong stay on the orbital outpost, Wilmore and Williams will continue to evaluate the spacecraft systems, including simulating whether the ship can be used as a safe haven in the event of an emergency on the ISS.</p><p>After undocking, Starliner will reenter the atmosphere, with the crew experiencing 3.5G as they slow down from 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour to a gentle parachute- and airbag-assisted touchdown in the western United States.</p><div><a href="https://news2.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/11/18/23/international-space-station-25-years-of-a-safe-space">International Space Station: 25 years of a safe space</a></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>A Boeing Starliner capsule carrying its first ever astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday after overcoming unexpected challenges arising from thruster malfunctions and helium leaks.</p>

A Boeing Starliner capsule carrying its first ever astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday after overcoming unexpected challenges arising from thruster malfunctions and helium leaks.