NASA and Boeing hope to launch the crewed Boeing Starliner on Saturday (25th May), following a helium leak that stalled the previous launch date.
The crewed test flight was originally scheduled for take-off on 6th May but was scrapped just two hours before due to an issue related to a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank of the Atlas V rock’s Centaur upper stage.
A re-arranged launch date of 17th May was then decided, but a “small” helium leak meant that the teams working on the launch needed more time to assess the situation.
The additional time allows the teams to better assess the helium leak in the spacecraft’s service module, traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster.
In a statement, NASA said, “Pressure testing performed on 15th May on the spacecraft’s helium system shows the leak in the flange is stable and would not pose a risk at that level during flight.”
“The testing also indicated the rest of the trust system is sealed effectively across the entire service model. Boeing teams are working to develop operational procedures to ensure the system retains sufficient performance capability and appropriate redundancy during the flight.”
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and the International Space Station Programme will take the next few days to review the data and procedures to make a final determination before proceeding to the flight countdown.
In the meantime, the ULA Atlas V rocket and Boeing’s Starliner remain in the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams will be the first to launch aboard Starliner to the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme. The astronauts will spend around a week at the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth and making a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern US.
Following the delay, the duo will remain quarantined in Houston as prelaunch operations progress and will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida closer to the new launch date.
After successful completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station.
Ready for take-off: NASA gears up for future Artemis missions
Earlier this year, gasworld US sat down exclusively with NASA to discuss the agency’s Artemis missions.
The target date for Artemis II’s historic crewed trip around the Moon is September 2025. Building on the uncrewed Artemis I mission’s success in 2022, Artemis II will launch from Kennedy Space Center for what should be a seven-day journey.
And where do gases come into this? Well, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and helium – these gases, and their liquefied forms of storage and handling – are in many respects the backbone for the entire space enterprise. Space missions are not possible without them.
“There is a lot of integration of cryogenics within NASA projects,” Jonathan Partridge, with the Propellants and Life Support team at Kennedy Space Centre, explained. “Primarily, we use cryogenics as propellants, but we also use them for thermal vacuum chambers to test spacecraft before launch, for example.”
If you’re a gasworld subscriber, you can access the full interview here.
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2024-05-20 09:46:50Z
CBMiaWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmdhc3dvcmxkLmNvbS9zdG9yeS9oZWxpdW0tbGVhay1zdGFsbHMtbmFzYS1hbmQtYm9laW5ncy1zdGFybGluZXItdGVzdC1mbGlnaHQvMjEzODk4MS5hcnRpY2xlL9IBAA
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