A second unmanned test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule – ordered after a first demonstration mission failed to reach the International Space Station – is now scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral in August or September, leaving little margin for the spacecraft’s maiden flight with astronauts to be carried out. before the end of the year.
Boeing and NASA officials confirmed the new schedule in recent statements, following a delay earlier the year from the previous intended launch date of the test flight on April 2. Managers blamed that scheme for delays in running software tests in preparation for the upcoming test flight, including issues from a February winter storm that hit Boeing’s Houston software lab.
The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is one of two commercial crew ships developed by US industry for NASA. SpaceX is the other contractor to NASA’s commercial crew, and that company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft began flying astronauts to the station last year.
Boeing’s Starliner, meanwhile, is still months away from its initially unplanned second unmanned test flight, and a flight test for the crew is expected at least several months after that.
Officials said external considerations dictated the schedule to launch Boeing’s second Starliner Orbital Flight Test or OFT-2 mission in the August / September timeframe.
The Starliner spacecraft uses the same space station docking ports as SpaceX’s Dragon crew and cargo ships. One of those gates is currently occupied by a Crew Dragon capsule, and both gates will be occupied for a few days later this month with the handover from one Crew Dragon mission to the next.
SpaceX’s next Dragon cargo mission is scheduled for June 3 and will remain in the space station for about a month and a half to deliver new supplies, experiments and a new pair of solar arrays. That prevents a Starliner from docking before the second half of July.
The operational crew and cargo missions have priority over flight testing in the Space Station schedule.
NASA and Boeing officials must also find a window into United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch schedule at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Unlike SpaceX, which launches Crew Dragon missions on its own Falcon 9 rockets, Boeing has signed a contract with ULA to put Starliner crew capsules into orbit.
ULA is a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, but operates as an independent company and has other customers. The US Space Force currently has payloads scheduled to launch on three Atlas 5 missions in May, June and August, featuring a new billion dollar military missile warning satellite, a menagerie of demo tech experiments and two space surveillance payloads.
Boeing had previously booked a launch slot with ULA in early September for the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test – the capsule’s first demonstration mission with astronauts – when the OFT-2 mission was due to be launched earlier this year. That launch slot is now available for the OFT-2 mission, and officials are not ruling out moving the OFT-2 launch to August if one of the Space Force delays one of its missions.
The Atlas 5 launch pad will be attached in late September through much of October with preparations to launch NASA’s robotic Lucy spacecraft on a marathon tour of the solar system to study asteroids. Lucy has a 23-day launch window opening Oct. 16, and NASA will prioritize the asteroid probe over the agency’s other missions.
Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said last week that the Starliner spacecraft assigned to the OFT-2 mission is in “working order” while undergoing preparations at a facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. in Florida.
“It’s almost ready for launch,” said Stich.
In a statement, Boeing said it will be “ mission-ready ” in May in case an opening occurs in the Atlas 5’s launch schedule.
“The Starliner team has completed all work on the OFT-2 vehicle, except for those activities that need to be done closer to launch, such as loading cargo and fueling the spacecraft,” said Boeing. “The team has also submitted all verification and validation papers to NASA and is completing all actions recommended by the Independent Review Team, including those that were not required prior to OFT-2.”
Boeing is taking more time to conduct software tests on the Starliner spacecraft, according to Stich, while officials await an opening in ULA’s space station schedule and launch manifesto. Boeing said in a statement it expects to complete software simulations, including end-to-end trust and integration testing, by the end of April and will provide the results to NASA reviewers.
Researchers blamed a software bug for the failure of the OFT-1 mission to dock with the space station in 2019. A mission timer was programmed incorrectly, leading the spacecraft to think it was in a different mission phase when it was after an otherwise successful launch from Cape Canaveral.
The flaw caused the Starliner capsule to burn more propellant than expected, consuming the fuel needed to maneuver to the space station. Mission managers chose to end the mission prematurely and the spacecraft landed in New Mexico.
Assuming the OFT-2 mission is off the pad in late summer, Stich said the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test could start “by the end of the calendar year.”
The Crew Flight Test will bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann to the space station. They will fly on the same reusable Starliner spacecraft that launched in December 2019 and landed during Boeing’s first Orbital Flight Test, while the OFT-2 mission will fly on an unused vehicle.
Boeing said its teams are preparing for the “shortest turnaround time possible” between the OFT-2 mission and the Crew Flight Test. Wilmore, Fincke and Mann recently fitted in and climbed aboard the spacecraft set to fly the OFT-2 mission to pay for life support and communication systems.
Once Boeing completes the two remaining Starliner test flights, NASA will certify the capsule for regular rotational missions to the space station, just as the agency did for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon last year.
NASA has nearly $ 7 billion in contracts with Boeing and SpaceX for the development of each company’s two commercial crew spacecraft and six operational rotational flights.
With Boeing’s delays, SpaceX will likely have launched four Crew Dragon missions with NASA astronauts – one test flight and three operational launches – before the Starliner flies with humans for the first time.
Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator, said the agency originally planned to alternate commercial crew missions between Boeing and SpaceX.
“The plan at this point is to swap – SpaceX, Boeing, SpaceX, Boeing – but Boeing’s first crew flight has been delayed, and we will most likely have … four crew flights with SpaceX before the crew test flight with Boeing,” Jurczyk said on Tuesday. “So we might have to look at that again, but we haven’t gotten around to talking about that yet.”
NASA will also soon begin to consider how and when to purchase more commercial crew missions to meet the space station’s requirements beyond 2024, he said. But those conversations are yet to come.
“We really haven’t talked in detail about how we’re going beyond current contracts and commitments,” Jurczyk said in an interview with Spaceflight Now.