However throughout a post-launch briefing, officers revealed that the thrusters did not work precisely as meant.
“We had two to thrusters fail,” Mark Nappi, vp and program supervisor of Boeing’s Starliner program, stated. “The first one that fired, it fired for a second and then it shut down. The flight control system did was what it’s supposed to, and it turned it over to the second thruster.”
That thruster then fired for under about 25 seconds earlier than shutting down, in keeping with Nappi. The flight management system once more took over and kicked on a 3rd thruster, which fired as meant.
“The system is designed to be redundant and it preformed like it was supposed to,” Nappi advised reporters Thursday night time.
The problem shouldn’t be anticipated to influence the general mission, Nappi stated.
Ultimately the capsule needed to be rolled again from the launch pad. When engineers weren’t in a position to repair it on the web site, it finally needed to be taken all the way in which again to Boeing’s manufacturing facility for extra thorough troubleshooting.
Boeing and NASA disagree, in keeping with the report and feedback from NASA officers throughout current press conferences.
Their investigation pointed to moisture entering into the valves and inflicting “corrosion” and “binding,” Boeing vp and Starliner program supervisor, Mark Nappi, stated at a press convention final week. That led the corporate to plan a short-term answer, making a purge system, which includes a small bag, designed to maintain out corrosion-causing moisture. NASA and Boeing say they’re comfy with this answer.
“We’re in really good shape to go fly that system,” NASA’s Industrial Crew Program supervisor Steve Stich stated final week.
However that is probably not the tip of it. Boeing revealed final week that it might finally have to revamp the valves.
“There’s a little bit of additional testing that we want to go do, and based on those results, we’ll solidify what kind of changes we’ll make in the future,” Nappi stated. “We’ll probably know more in the coming months.”
If Boeing does transfer ahead with a extra in depth redesign of the valves, it is not clear how lengthy that might take or if it may additional delay Boeing’s first astronaut mission, which, at this level, is years delayed. The hangups with Starliner have additionally price the corporate about half a billion {dollars}, in keeping with public paperwork.
In the meantime, SpaceX, as soon as regarded as the underdog competitor in NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, has already launched 5 astronaut missions for NASA in addition to two tourism missions. The inaugural astronaut launch of its automobile, the Crew Dragon, turned the primary to hold astronauts to orbit from US soil for the reason that House Shuttle Program retired in 2011.
