NASA, Boeing Complete Starliner Engine Tests: What’s Next for the Troubled Spacecraft?

Boeing Starliner spacecraft docks with the International Space Station

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams for flight tests to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the forward port of the Harmony module. This long-duration photograph was taken at night from the orbiting complex as it rose 255 miles (410 kilometers) above the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai, India. Credit: NASA

Engineers at NASA and Boeing are carefully reviewing recent engine tests to ensure the safe return of Boeing’s crew flight test. Simultaneously, astronauts on the ISS are participating in medical and scientific experiments, contributing to our understanding of the effects of space on human physiology and materials science.

NASA and Boeing engineers are evaluating the results of last week’s engine tests at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico as the team works on plans to return the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test from Tokyo Haneda International Airport. International Space Station in the next weeks.

Teams have completed ground hot-fire tests at White Sands and are working to evaluate test data and inspect the test engine. Ongoing ground analysis is expected to continue throughout the week. Working with a reaction control system thruster built for a future Starliner spacecraft, ground teams fired the engine under flight conditions similar to those the spacecraft experienced en route to the space station. Ground testing also included firings under stress conditions and replicated conditions that Starliner thrusters will experience from undocking to the deorbit burn, where the thrusters will fire to slow Starliner’s velocity in order to deorbit it for landing in the southwestern United States.

For a detailed look at the test plans, listen to a replay of a recent conference call with NASA and Boeing executives:

“I am extremely proud of the NASA and Boeing team for their hard work in completing a very complex series of tests,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager. “We have collected an incredible amount of data on the thruster that could help us better understand what is happening in flight. Our team has now moved on to disassembling and inspecting the engines, which will provide us with additional information as we analyze the results and evaluate next steps.”

Preparing for Starliner’s return to Earth

Integrated ground teams are also preparing for a comprehensive review by the Flight Test Readiness Agency, which will evaluate data related to the spacecraft’s propulsion system performance before it returns to Earth. A date for the agency’s review has not yet been set.

NASA and Boeing management plan to discuss the testing and analysis work in detail at a press conference next week. More information about that press conference will be available soon.

Butch Wilmore, Boeing Crew Flight Test Captain

Butch Wilmore, NASA astronaut and Boeing Crew Flight Test Commander, works on the Fluid Systems Servicer that drains, purges and circulates fluids in systems aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Astronaut activities and research on board the ISS

While testing and analysis take place on Earth, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Starliner mission commander, and Suni Williams, mission pilot, are working alongside the Expedition 71 crew. On Monday, the two men participated in vein scans using the Ultrasound 2 machine. Doctors on the ground monitored in real time the two men, taking turns photographing veins in each other’s necks, shoulders and legs. Later, Wilmore scanned fellow NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick’s veins, helping researchers understand how microgravity affects the human body.

Wilmore and Dominick also spent part of the day taking inventory of the food stored aboard the space station. Williams worked on two studies, first exploring the use of microgravity to make better-quality optical fibers than on Earth. Williams also studied the use of fluid physics, such as surface tension, to overcome the absence of gravity when watering and tending to plants grown in space.