Space / Aerospace / Aircraft

[Malcolm]

The Boeing Starliner crew might be stuck in space for the rest of the summer

Story by Melvin Backman

 • 22h • 2 min read

Boeing and NASA still aren’t sure when they’ll bring the CST-100 Starliner home. In a news conference Wednesday, NASA said it’s targeting a return at the end of the month, but it hasn’t yet committed to a hard date. Testing that should help explain a persistent problem is expected to wrap up later this week, at which point the mission will have more clarity about an ending.

 

Two astronauts have been stuck in orbit aboard the International Space Station since early June due to the Starliner’s issues. The main point of concern continues to be figuring out what is going on with the thrusters that would guide the spacecraft back to Earth. Leaks in the helium storage tanks that control the thrusters, which led to multiple delays for the Starliner launch, aren’t expected to endanger a return flight; at a June 18 press conference, officials reiterated that the ship needs seven hours of helium to make it home and has 70 hours’ worth aboard. Though they said the craft could come home right now if needed, they also said they’re not quite ready for it to do so.

“We’re taking the chance to look under every rock and stone to make sure there’s nothing else that might surprise us,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

 

Related video: NASA astronauts stuck on ISS to participate in news conference (WKRN Nashville)

I'm rallying at thewkrn.com alert as this morning the NASA

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During a question-and-answer session with reporters, Stitch and Mark Nappi, Boeing’s commercial crew program manager, toggled between expressing their confidence that a safe return mission could happen — “We do have a lot of confidence in the thrusters as they are today,” Nappi said — and a hesitancy to say that everything was A-OK.

Besides concern that harm might befall Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the astronauts that crewed the Starliner launch, there were questions about whether NASA would call off a return trip and send the pair home on another spacecraft. In that case, Boeing rival SpaceX would be the company giving them a life. Stitch and Nappi said no such discussions had been initiated towards that end.

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[Malcolm]

It is, after all, rocket science and not without it's failures.

A "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly": SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by the US Federal Aviation Administration after one broke apart in space and doomed its payload of Starlink satellites, the first failure in more than seven years of a rocket relied upon by the global space industry

SpaceX's Falcon 9 grounded after failure dooms batch of Starlink satellites

By Joey Roulette

July 12, 20246:51 PM MDTUpdated 14 hours ago

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket grounded after orbital failure

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday after one broke apart in space and doomed its payload of Starlink satellites, the first failure in more than seven years of a rocket relied upon by the global space industry.

Roughly an hour after Falcon 9 lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday night, the rocket's second stage failed to reignite and deployed its 20 Starlink satellites on a shallow orbital path where they will reenter Earth's atmosphere and burn up.

 

 

The attempt to reignite the engine "resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote early on Friday on his social media platform X, using initials for the industry term Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly that usually means explosion.

The Falcon 9 will be grounded until SpaceX investigates the cause of the failure, fixes the rocket and receives the FAA's approval, the agency said in a statement. That process could take several weeks or months, depending on the issue's complexity and SpaceX's plan to fix it.

 

The botched mission of the world's most active rocket ended a success streak of more than 300 straight missions during which SpaceX has maintained its dominance of the launch industry. Many countries and space companies rely on privately owned SpaceX, valued at roughly $200 billion, to send their satellites and astronauts into space.

Musk said SpaceX was updating the software of the Starlink satellites to force their on-board thrusters to fire harder than usual to avoid a fiery atmospheric re-entry.

"Unlike a Star Trek episode, this will probably not work, but it's worth a shot," Musk said.

The satellites pose no threat to the public, SpaceX wrote on Friday evening on X. The company did not estimate when they would make their reentry, which would appear as streaks of light across the sky.

"Shooting stars," Musk said, replying the SpaceX post.

Their altitude is so shallow that Earth's gravity is pulling them 3 miles (5 km) closer toward the atmosphere with each orbit, SpaceX said earlier in the day, confirming they would "re-enter Earth's atmosphere and fully demise."

 

NASA said in a statement on Friday it monitors all of SpaceX's Falcon 9 missions.

"SpaceX has been forthcoming with information and is including NASA in the company's ongoing anomaly investigation to understand the issue and path forward," a U.S. space agency spokesperson said.

SpaceX said the second stage's failure occurred after engineers detected a leak of liquid oxygen, a propellant.

The mishap occurred on Falcon 9's 354th mission. It was the first Falcon 9 failure since 2016, when a rocket exploded on a launch pad in Florida and destroyed its customer payload, an Israeli communications satellite.

"We knew this incredible run had to come to an end at some point," Tom Mueller, SpaceX's former vice president of propulsion who designed Falcon 9's engines, replied to Musk on X. "... The team will fix the problem and start the cycle again."

The failure will likely stymie SpaceX's intensifying Falcon 9 launch pace. The rocket's 96 launches last year were its most to date and exceeded the annual launch total in any country. By comparison, China, a space rival to the United States, launched 67 missions to space in 2023 using various rockets.

"It is extremely rare for Falcon to fail. They have a much better rate than almost any other rocket developed in terms of the success of their mission," said Will Whitehorn, chair of the venture capital firm Seraphim Space Investment Trust.

Although Thursday night's Falcon 9 flight was an in-house mission, the rocket's grounding is likely to impact upcoming SpaceX customer missions.

Falcon 9 is the only U.S. rocket capable of sending NASA crews to the International Space Station. NASA was expecting to launch its next astronaut mission in August, with SpaceX's Crew Dragon astronaut capsule launching atop the rocket.

NASA has been trying to help fix unrelated problems with Boeing's (BA.N), opens new tab Starliner spacecraft, which is in the midst of a test mission to prove it can become NASA's second astronaut ride to orbit alongside Crew Dragon.

SpaceX was poised to launch as early as July 31 its Polaris Dawn Crew Dragon mission sending four private astronauts into orbit for a few days to conduct the first commercial spacewalk using the company's newly designed spacesuits.

Jared Isaacman, head of the Polaris program and a mission crew member, said he expects SpaceX to quickly recover from the failure.

"As for Polaris Dawn, we will fly whenever SpaceX is ready and with complete confidence in the rocket, spaceship and operations," Isaacman wrote on X.

Musk replied that "we will investigate the issue and look for any other potential near-misses."

SpaceX has launched about 7,000 Starlink satellites of various designs into space since 2018 for its global broadband internet network. Industry analysts have said the satellites on Thursday's mission could be worth at least $10 million combined.

The Technology Roundup newsletter brings the latest news and trends straight to your inbox. Sign up here.

Reporting by Joey Roulette; Additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Akash Siram; Editing by Will Dunham, Barbara Lewis and David Holmes

[deicer]

Over 300 successful missions, including 96 launches last year and the FAA grounds it because of one incident?

I think the FAA is trying to distract from the Boeing issues.....

[Malcolm]

26 minutes ago, deicer said:

Over 300 successful missions, including 96 launches last year and the FAA grounds it because of one incident?

I think the FAA is trying to distract from the Boeing issues.....

And then to consider is the decision (will they say no ) to allow the ISS to be towed from orbit and then allowed to break/burn up.  

NASA selects SpaceX to bring ISS out of orbit in 2030 (astronomy.com)

Empty falcon 9

Specifications

Height	41.2 m / 135.2 ft
Height (with interstage)	47.7 m / 156.5 ft
Diameter	3.7 m / 12 ft
Empty Mass	25,600 kg / 56,423 lb
Propellant Mass	395,700 kg/ 872,369 lb

[IFG]

4 hours ago, deicer said:

Over 300 successful missions, including 96 launches last year and the FAA grounds it because of one incident?

I think the FAA is trying to distract from the Boeing issues.....

Perhaps 1:300 is not an acceptable aspirational failure ratio? (Thought experiment: Is playing russian roulette 'safe' with a 300 round cylinder? If 300+ people are playing it?) 

Transportation safety generally plays to numbers with many zeroes after the decimal point. Indeed, space travel ain't airline flying, but if FAA is being over-cautious, it's not ridiculously so. When one of these thing 'RUD's, maybe it's worth at least knowing WTF happened before launching again? 

Wonder if this affects rescue options for ISS, though.

Cheers, IFG - 

Edited July 13 by IFG

[deicer]

15 hours ago, IFG said:

Perhaps 1:300 is not an acceptable aspirational failure ratio? (Thought experiment: Is playing russian roulette 'safe' with a 300 round cylinder? If 300+ people are playing it?) 

Transportation safety generally plays to numbers with many zeroes after the decimal point. Indeed, space travel ain't airline flying, but if FAA is being over-cautious, it's not ridiculously so. When one of these thing 'RUD's, maybe it's worth at least knowing WTF happened before launching again? 

Wonder if this affects rescue options for ISS, though.

Cheers, IFG - 

I agree with your assessment.  A thorough investigation is needed.  

I just wanted to point out that Boeing had many issues with the first crewed launch of their capsule, which has led to two astronauts having a greatly expanded space experience, yet you don't see the FAA jumping all over them?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230518-what-are-the-odds-of-a-successful-space-launch

 

[J.O.]

On 7/13/2024 at 8:05 AM, Malcolm said:

A "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly":

In layman's terms, this is known a "KABOOM".

Edited July 16 by J.O.

[deicer]

32 minutes ago, J.O. said:

In layman's terms, this is known a a "KABOOM".

 

[Malcolm]

NASA cancels its moon rover mission, citing cost overruns and launch delays

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA said Wednesday it's canceling its water-seeking moon rover, citing cost overruns and launch delays.

The Viper rover was supposed to launch in late 2023 aboard a lander provided by Astrobotic Technology, but extra testing and increased costs kept delaying the mission, threatening other projects, the space agency said.

 

The rover had aimed to explore the moon's south pole. About $450 million had been spent so far on its development, NASA said.

The announcement comes days before the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon on July 20, 1969. NASA said it plans to study the presence of lunar ice through other projects.

Astrobotic still plans to fly its Griffin moon lander — minus a rover — by the end of next year. The company's first moonshot ended in failure in January with a fiery plunge over the South Pacific.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Associated Press

[Malcolm]

asteroid bigger than The Eiffel Tower about to skim Earth

©Provided by MetroScientists are on a mission to study an asteroid larger than the Eiffel Tower which is on course to skim the Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) will send a spacecraft to the 99942 Apophis asteroid to gather new information about it as the rock hurtles through space, on a rare journey that only happens every 5,000 to 10,000 years (Asteroid bigger than the Eiffel Tower will skim Earth closer than the Moon (msn.com)

It is expected to pass closer to Earth than the satellites used for TV broadcasting, navigation and weather forecasting, and ten times closer than the Moon.

So close, in fact, it will be visible to roughly 2 billion people across Europe, Africa and Asia.

ESA’s mission will also explore how the asteroid changes as it passes within 20,000 miles (32,000km) of Earth on Friday 13 April 2029.

[Specs]

On 7/19/2024 at 12:11 PM, Malcolm said:

on Friday 13 April 2029.

Hmmm?

[Malcolm]

18 hours ago, Specs said:

Hmmm?

ESA’s mission will also explore how the asteroid changes as it passes within 20,000 miles (32,000km) of Earth on Friday 13 April 2029.

[Malcolm]

FILE - This photo provided by NASA shows the Starliner spacecraft docked to the Harmony module of the International Space Station, orbiting 262 miles above Egypt's Mediterranean coast, on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP, File)© The Associated Press

Already more than a month late getting back, two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule, officials said Thursday.

Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing's new Starliner capsule prompted NASA and Boeing to keep them up longer.

mission managers were not ready to announce a return date.

“We’ll come home when we’re ready," said Stich, adding that the goal is to bring Wilmore and Williams back aboard Starliner.

Stich acknowledged that backup options are under review.

Engineers last week completed testing on a spare thruster in the New Mexico desert and will rip it apart to try to understand what went wrong during docking. Five thrusters failed as the capsule approached the space station on June 6, a day after liftoff. Four have since been reactivated.

It appeared degraded seals are to blame for the helium leaks and thruster problems, but more analysis is needed. The team will test-fire the thrusters this weekend while docked to the space station to gather more data, said Boeing’s Mark Nappi.

After the space shuttles retired, NASA hired private companies for astronaut rides to the space station, paying Boeing and SpaceX billions of dollars.

 

Related video: NASA Infusing Fast Laser Communications On Space Missions (Dailymotion)

 

This was the Boeing's first test flight with a crew aboard. SpaceX has been ferrying astronauts since 2020.

___

[Malcolm]

cbc.ca

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4 civilians prepare for the riskiest SpaceX mission to date

Story by Nicole Mortillaro

 • 1h • 3 min read

Next monday will be August 26  if all goes well.  

Next Monday, if all goes to plan, a four-person crew will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a SpaceX rocket, on their way to making history.

Funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the five-day mission has several scientific goals, but the biggest and undoubtedly riskiest one is the first commercial spacewalk.

 

"Whatever risk associated with it, it's worth it," said Isaacman during a press conference on Monday.

It's the first in-flight test of SpaceX's sleek new extravehicular (EVA) spacesuit, based off its intravehicular one.

But this spacewalk will be quite different from those with which we're most familiar. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule doesn't have an airlock, so the entire spacecraft will be depressurized, with all four crew members testing the new suits.

The crew consists of Isaacman, CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company based out of Pennsylvania; Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a former air force colonel; Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer and astronaut trainer; and Anna Menon, another SpaceX engineer who also serves in mission control.

The launch is scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 26 at 3:30 a.m. ET.

It will be Isaacman and Gillis who will conduct the spacewalk 700 kilometres above Earth three days into the mission.

 

The four Polaris Dawn crew members sit inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft wearing the newly designed extravehicular spacesuits. (SpaceX)

"EVA is a risky adventure. But again, we did all the work to really get ready for this," said Bill Gerstenmaier, who was head of NASA's human spaceflight until 2020. He is now an engineer at SpaceX.

The mission has been two-and-a-half years in the making.

"We kind of built off of what NASA's heritage was, but I think we've also extended NASA's heritage a little bit further," he said.

 

Related video: Watch SpaceX Deploy Space Force's 'Amelia Earhart' GPS Satellite In View From Space (Space.com)

Welcome back once again to our launch coverage of the

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SpaceX founder Elon Musk has the ultimate goal of colonizing Mars, so the spacesuits are a necessary step. 

"It's not lost on us that, you know, it might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit but that someday someone could be wearing a version of which that might be walking on Mars," Isaacman said. "And [it's] a huge honour to have that opportunity, to test it out on this flight."

Boldly going

Emmanuel Urquieta, vice-chair of aerospace medicine at the University of Central Florida, said there is a lot of history to support this historic spacewalk.

"I think the philosophy from these missions — Polaris Dawn and, in general, the Polaris program — is to follow the same fashion as the Gemini programs back in NASA," he told CBC News. "We were developing a real space program looking at one capability after the other one, right, demonstrating first that you're able to do it."

 

The first spacewalk in history was on March 18, 1965, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. The U.S. followed on June 3, 1965, with astronaut Ed White.

Similar to the upcoming SpaceX spacewalk, there was no airlock, so the Gemini spacecraft had to be depressurized. 

But it's not all about the spacewalk.

There will be several other scientific objectives, including orbiting at a far higher altitude than the International Space Station (ISS).

The ISS orbits at roughly 400 kilometres, but Polaris Dawn will orbit at 1,400 kilometres during the mission. The goal is to better understand space radiation on the human body, as their orbit will take them partially out of the Van Allen Belt, a region that protects us from this harmful radiation.

They will also study other aspects of spaceflight on the human body, as well as a new form of laser communication using Starlink satellites.

 

Several health experiments will be conducted during the five-day Polaris Dawn mission, including studying how the eye changes during and after spaceflight. (Polaris Program/John Kraus)

The crew members say they are looking forward to their mission.

"I think it will without a doubt impact me. It already already has. These last two-and-a-half years have been absolutely impactful in the most incredible way," said mission specialist Anna Menon at Monday's press conference.

"I've spent years trying to put myself in the seat of astronauts in space, and I am really looking forward to learning firsthand what that experience is actually like."

 

Menon wears her extravehicular spacesuit in front of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that will take her and her three crewmates to space. (SpaceX)

As for Isaacman, this will be his second flight. He was on the first all-civilian Inspiration4 mission in 2021 on board a SpaceX capsule.

"Being in space [there was] an unexpected moment where the moon rose while I was looking at Earth. I didn't expect to see it and it was just, 'Man, we gotta just keep this thing going,'" Isaacman said about space exploration.

"You know, I wasn't alive when humans walked on the moon. I'd certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars and venturing out and exploring our solar system."

[Malcolm]

NASA will decide Saturday if Boeing's new capsule is safe enough to fly 2 astronauts back from space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA said Thursday it will decide this weekend whether Boeing’s new capsule is safe enough to return two astronauts from the International Space Station, where they’ve been waiting since June.

Administrator Bill Nelson and other top officials will meet Saturday. An announcement is expected from Houston once the meeting ends.

 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5. The test flight quickly encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA kept the capsule parked at the station as engineers debated what to do.

SpaceX could retrieve the astronauts, but that would keep them up there until next February. They were supposed to return after a week or so at the station.

If NASA decides SpaceX is the way to go, Starliner would return to Earth empty in September.

Engineers are evaluating a new computer model for the Starliner thrusters and how they might perform as the capsule descends out of orbit for a touchdown in the U.S. Western desert. The results, including updated risk analyses, will factor into the final decision, NASA said.

 

FILE - NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore stand together for a photo enroute to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for their liftoff on the Boeing Starliner capsule to the international space station. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)© The Associated Press

Boeing said earlier this month that extensive testing of thrusters in space and on the ground demonstrated Starliner’s ability to safely return the astronauts.

It was the company's first astronaut flight, delayed for years by a multitude of capsule problems. Two previous Starliner test flights had no one on board.

 

Related video: Watch Animation Of How The Boeing Starliner Launches To Space (Dailymotion)

 

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago, after the space shuttles retired, to ferry its astronauts to and from the station. SpaceX has been at it since 2020.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

NASA will decide Saturday if Boeing's new capsule is safe enough to fly 2 astronauts back from space (msn.com)

[deicer]

I wonder what level of input they will take from the two astronauts?

I also wonder what uplift in flight pay they will be getting for being up there so long 

[Malcolm]

2 hours ago, deicer said:

I wonder what level of input they will take from the two astronauts?

I also wonder what uplift in flight pay they will be getting for being up there so long 

Of interest to me is if things go wrong, will NASA be the goat? 

[deicer]

17 hours ago, Malcolm said:

Of interest to me is if things go wrong, will NASA be the goat? 

I don't think with all the press coverage that it's gotten, NASA could be blamed.  Boeing would like it to be that way, however I think it sits squarely on Boeing.

 

[Malcolm]

Looks like the return will be on Space X.

Bing Videos  of the discussion

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they'll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.

 

In this long-exposure photo provided by NASA, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is docked to the Harmony module of the International Space Station on July 3, 2024. (NASA via AP)© The Associated Press

The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and debated what to do about the trip back.

 

After almost three months, the decision finally came down from NASA’s highest ranks on Saturday. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come back in a SpaceX spacecraft in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in a week or two and attempt to return on autopilot.

"The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is result of a commitment to safety," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during the press conference. "Our core value is safety, and it is our North Star. And I'm grateful to NASA and to Boeing, for their teams, for all the incredible and detailed work to get to this decision."

The decision brings to an end the mystery surrounding the fate of Williams and Wilmore, the veteran NASA astronauts who arrived June 6 at the orbital outpost for what was supposed to only be a stay of little more than a week.

 

'Stuck' in space? Starliner astronauts aren't 1st to have extended stay; Frank Rubio's delayed return set record

 

[Malcolm]

Re the Spacex uber, I wonder who pays the fare for the 2 boeing astronauts?   Boeing or Nasa?

[deicer]

It now will be interesting to see if the empty capsule returns in one piece.

[Leeroy]

I'm a space junky and hate to see any endeavor fail, but I hope it burns up. It's time for NASA to move away from some of their legacy space hardware providers that accept billions, but no longer have what it takes to deliver the goods.

[conehead]

1 hour ago, Leeroy said:

I'm a space junky and hate to see any endeavor fail, but I hope it burns up. It's time for NASA to move away from some of their legacy space hardware providers that accept billions, but no longer have what it takes to deliver the goods.

I would imagine Boeing would like to have it back in the shop to see what all went wrong.

[Malcolm]

16 minutes ago, conehead said:

I would imagine Boeing would like to have it back in the shop to see what all went wrong.

And preferably not in pieces

[Leeroy]

13 minutes ago, conehead said:

I would imagine Boeing would like to have it back in the shop to see what all went wrong.

Yes, so that they can continue to milk NASA for billions and still not deliver. Boeing was asked in an interview why they received a contract worth almost twice what Spacex was awarded for arguably less work. The response was something along the lines of: we are a legacy provider and are entitled to the better contracts.