The first crewed mission aboard a Boeing made space capsule – the Starliner – has just reached the International Space Station (ISS), preparing for docking, after years of delays, recent troubleshooting and 3 helium leaks detected after liftoff on Wednesday.
The Starliner previously docked to the ISS in 2022 and successfully landed back on Earth in an uncrewed mission. The crewed mission, first foreseen for the beginning of last year, was postponed to “no earlier than Friday, July 21st” 2023”, then a launch scheduled on 6 May this year was aborted due to leaks and valve issues, then a 1 July launch did not happen, until it finally took off on Wednesday.
As part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, astronauts Butch Wilmore, commander, and Suni Williams, pilot, launched aboard the Starliner on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They lifted off at 10:52 am EDT, embarking on a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
Although the launch was declared a success, 3 helium leaks were discovered after the Starliner reached orbit. While one of them was already known before takeoff and was considered within acceptable risk, before starting their “sleep period” on Wednesday night, Wilmore and Williams were notified they had to close off two helium valves to prevent further leaking.
“Teams have identified three helium leaks on the spacecraft. One of these was previously discussed before flight along with a management plan. The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived on orbit. Two of the affected helium valves have been closed and the spacecraft remains stable”, NASA wrote on X, confirming the capsule was continuing its way to the ISS.
At the time of writing, the Starliner is starting the docking procedure. It will take around 6 more hours until Wilmore and Williams actually make it inside the station. Should everything go as planned, they will be joining the 7 astronauts already aboard the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth.
Although both NASA and Boeing have ensured “the helium leak is not a safety issue for the crew, the vehicle or the mission”, it remains to be seen weather the return timeline will be respected. “We’ve got a prescribed landing date that goes along with this launch date, but I just want to emphasize that nobody should get too excited about that date. We have to have a lot of conditions that are just right before we bring the Starliner home and we’re going to wait till the conditions are right and we’ve accomplished the test objectives before we do that”, said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
Part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the flight test will help validate the transportation system, launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operations capabilities and return to Earth with astronauts aboard as the agency prepares to certify Starliner for rotational missions to the space station. During the mission, Boeing monitors a series of automatic spacecraft manoeuvres from its mission control centre in Houston, while NASA teams monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
