Engineers from Boeing and NASA spent much of the past month conducting ground tests on the Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) propulsion system to get a better idea of what went wrong during the active Starliner flight in early June, and have finally completed the past. week. In its latest update, said the teams were able to replicate the thrust degradation experienced by the Starliner and are now reviewing all the data. But the return date of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams is still uncertain – NASA and Boeing have said they will only visit in the “coming weeks”.
In tests at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, the teams simulated the conditions of Starliner’s final flight, shifting the thrust of the control system from “launch with more than 1,000 pulses to simulate the CFT in one of the most intense launch sequences to dock-to-dock. [Crew Flight Test] conditions,” according to Boeing. They also tested the breakup and orbital burn scenarios that the Starliner would encounter on its way home. After collecting terabytes of data from those tests, the teams conducted additional, more aggressive tests to “see if we could more closely simulate the high-temperature conditions that the thrusters experience in flight,” said Dan Niedermaier, Boeing’s thrust test engineer.
Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said Thursday that engineers were performing “engine teardowns and inspections.” After their analysis, NASA He says there will be an Agency Flight Test Readiness Review to determine if the Starliner is in good condition to return astronauts. NASA and Boeing said they will reveal more information at a conference in the coming days.
