And Starliner has actually launched!
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Boeing’s Starliner achieved stable LEO. En route to ISS tomorrow around 11:15 am CDT.
Well done, our team!
Busy week: Starship launch scheduled for tomorrow around 7am CDT.
Wishing great success to both.
Edit: FWIW, both teams are “our team” in this context. 
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I still find it interesting that Boeing uses a suborbital launch profile to make sure the Centaur upper stage is disposed of in a controlled manner. My understanding is that the RL-10 is restartable, so is Starliner so massive (heavy) that there’s not enough propellant margin for a deorbit burn?
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Two new helium leaks have developed onboard Starliner Calypso since arriving on orbit in addition to the one they already knew about.
For a flight of eight days, these may very well be manageable and not a problem. But if this were a six month crew rotation mission with it on lifeboat duty attached to the ISS?
This is why, despite everything I’d want, I couldn’t be an astronaut. How the heck could I be expected to sleep (or work), and not spend every moment looking out the window?
You have to be suicidal to go into space on a Boeing vehicle.
That company should have been shut down years ago.
To be fair, helium is second only to hydrogen in its ability to leak IIRC. Nonetheless, this is troubling, and if the leaks are in the service module (likely, because thrusters) Boeing is not going to have it after flight to tear down to confirm the exact source. AGAIN.
No docking for Starliner yet, they are troubleshooting RCS thruster issues.
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<Chorus>AGAIN?</Chorus>
Somebody just get out and push!
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Uggg
They got things figured out enough to get inside the “keep out” zone, and they are currently getting ready for the 10 meter hold location.
Aannnnd, docked. Second times the charm.
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Contact!
dum dum dum
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Aaaaaand now they’re up to four helium leaks.
However, they (NASA officials) acknowledged that these leaks appeared to be a more systemic problem than originally believed.
They also are beginning to suspect that the problems with the RCS thrusters may be a ”data issue” not rooted in the thrusters themselves or the control software.
“I think we’re missing something fundamental that’s going on inside the thrusters,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager on Thursday.
You think?
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NASA, Boeing Progress on Testing Starliner with Crew at Space Station
The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test approaches the International Space Station while orbiting 263 miles above Quebec, Canada. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard Starliner docked to the orbital outpost’s forward port on the Harmony module at 1:34 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 6. Photo credit: NASA
Orbiting Earth as part of the nine-person crew of the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams continue testing Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as part of its first flight with astronauts. The testing is part of the data collection on the Starliner system for certification by NASA for regular crewed mission to the orbital complex.
TL;DR
- A fifth helium manifold leak. These are apparently not an issue when docked because the manifolds are closed then. Enough helium left for 70 hours of free flight and the return trip takes just 7.
- There’s a sticky RCS oxidizer isolation valve. <sigh> What is it with these thruster valves on Starliner? Plenty of redundancy, however, so it’s been left closed.
- Edit: Undocking is now scheduled for no earlier than Friday, June 21 at 10:42pm (CDT, I think) with landing approximately seven hours later.
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This is making me wonder how much slack the ISS has in terms of expected number of inhabitants/visit duration vs actual. The priority is getting those guys back safe but I have no idea if they’re provisioned for a month up there.
I’d think there would be a considerable amount of slack in case a crew vehicle fails while preparing to depart. Food would be the biggest problem, I’d guess, since when everything’s working properly most of the water is now recycled and the CO2 scrubbers are baked out instead of being exchanged and discarded.
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NASA, Boeing Update Starliner Crew Flight Test Return from Station
The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above the Mediterranean Sea.
Teams from NASA and Boeing now are targeting no earlier than 10:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the undocking of the Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station. For the primary undocking opportunity, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the first crew to fly aboard Starliner, would land about 4:51 a.m. on Wednesday, June 26, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
They’re still looking at the helium leaks and the thruster issue that occurred during docking. Given the additional review time needed for these issues after the end of the mission and the crew rotation schedule, it seems likely that the earliest an operational mission would be flown with Starliner won’t be until over a year from now, with Dragon once again picking up the slack.
You are the Hanger Queen / Dear and late, and of Dragon green / Hanger Queen / Feel the heat from the hydrazine, oh yeah
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¡Ay! It seems like the June 26 date (for return of the Boeing Starliner) has now slipped to sometime in July. (The Starliner is still approved for emergencies that require a return-to-Earth, though.) Reason: “allow mission teams time to review propulsion system data”.
At this point the stay will be a minimum of 13 days longer than the planned stay of “about a week” (June 18-ish based on the delayed launch).
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TL;DR — NASA still intends to bring Williams and Wilmore home aboard the Starliner, but it’s going to be a few more weeks while Boeing continues to run thruster testing on the ground trying to replicate the data seen from the spacecraft.
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