Starliner Calypso set to undock and return to Earth without CFT crew

Date:
Fri, 06 Sep 2024 18:05:35 +0000

Description:
The Boeing Starliner Calypso, which launched to the International Space Station on June 5 with The post Starliner Calypso set to undock and return to Earth without CFT crew appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

The Boeing Starliner Calypso , which launched to the International Space Station on June 5 with two experienced astronauts on board, is about to
undock from ISS after three months on orbit but with those fliers staying behind on the Station for the next six months while the Crew Flight Test
(CFT) mission ends without them on board.

The autonomous undocking is currently scheduled for Friday, Sept. 6 at 6:04
PM EDT (22:04 UTC). Landing is scheduled for later that same day at 10:04 PM MDT (04:04 UTC Saturday, Sept. 7) at White Sands in New Mexico. This will be the third uncrewed landing of Starliner at that site, and the fourth landing of a crew-capable vehicle there.





The White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) complex, within a region of New Mexico known for gypsum sand dunes, was named as one of the landing sites for Starliner along with the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and the Willcox Plain in southeast Arizona. Edwards Air Force Base in California has been named as
a contingency site as well. Space Shuttle Columbia landing at Northrup Strip now White Sands Space Harbor in March 1982 to close out the STS-3 test flight. (Credit: NASA)

There are two sites within WSMR available for Starliners landing. One of
these sites WSMR-N is at the northern end of the range, and another more southerly site is the White Sands Space Harbor (WSSH) site where the Space Shuttle Columbia landed on what was then known as Northrup Strip to close out the STS-3 mission in March 1982.

WSSH has hosted both landings of the Starliner spacecraft so far. Starliner Calypso landed at WSSH after the troubled Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission
in December 2019 and the second not yet named Starliner spacecraft landed there in May 2022 after OFT-2. Both of these landings were uncrewed and now the Starliner-1 mission would be the next opportunity for a crewed landing at the site.

On Thursday, Aug. 29, Part 2 of NASAs agency readiness review took place. During the first part of this review, the agency decided to proceed with an uncrewed undocking of Starliner. In the second part, everyone polled go for undocking pending the vehicles operational status and landing weather. Seven mission data loads have been updated, and the CFT software is being used as
is otherwise. The software has been tested in a series of runs in Boeings avionics and software integration lab and it has checked out with good results. CFT crewmembers Butch WIlmore and Suni Williams aboard ISS. (Credit: NASA)

The Starliners return to Earth started with the final hatch closure by CFT astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, at 1:30 PM EDT (17:30 UTC) on Sept. 5. A readiness poll took place on that day, while the undocking poll will take place approximately 45 minutes before the scheduled departure on Sept. 6.

The winds and clouds at White Sands currently are looking favorable, with
wind speeds of seven to 10 knots expected, though rain showers in the mountains are being watched. If an undocking is not approved, there are opportunities every four days thereafter. The next opportunity to undock
would be on Tuesday, Sept. 10, while Sept. 14 and Sept. 18 will be available if needed. The Sept. 22 opportunity could conflict with Soyuz operations. Starliner Calypso is seen docked to the Harmony modules forward port from a window on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft docked to the zenith port on the Harmony module on ISS. (Credit: NASA)

The undocking procedure that will be used is different from the procedure
that the CFT crew would have used if they were on board. After the spacecraft is released from the forward docking port on the Stations Harmony module, it will not conduct a flyaround as had been planned.

A breakout burn will take Calypso away from the Station quickly. This burn will be performed around 90 seconds after undocking; during a crewed undocking, the spacecraft would be staying closer to the Station for a longer time. This procedure will also place less stress on the thrusters due to the need for fewer burns.

After departure, there will be additional tests performed on the thrusters to check their performance after three months on orbit. These tests can also gather additional data to assist NASA and Boeing in their diagnostics and resolution of the propulsion systems issues that prevented a crewed return. Diagram showing the Starliners key components. (Credit: Boeing)

A few hours after Calypso leaves ISS, the spacecraft will conduct its deorbit burn over the Pacific Ocean. The deorbit burn, lasting approximately one minute, will take place at 11:17 PM EDT on Sept. 6 (03:17 UTC Sept. 7), and
it is expected that all thrusters will be functional except for the B1A3 thruster in the bottom doghouse on Starliners service module.

The service module will be jettisoned after the deorbit burn and will make a destructive reentry over the Pacific. Since the service module is expended, the propulsion system cannot be inspected upon return to Earth. NASA and Boeing have conducted additional on-orbit testing of the propulsion system to gather data on its performance as a result.

Starliner Calypso will reach a temperature of up to 1,930 degrees Celsius during re-entry and communication will briefly be lost due to ionized air surrounding the spacecraft. The spacecraft will be flying on a path that
takes it over the Pacific, then over Baja California and other parts of western Mexico, and finally United States airspace over New Mexico. Illustration of Starliners landing sequence. (Credit: Boeing)

Landing is set for WSSH, which has hosted all other crew-capable spacecraft landings at WSMR. When Calypso reaches the vicinity of White Sands, the forward heat shield will be jettisoned to expose the parachute compartment four minutes before touchdown. Two drogue chutes will deploy afterward, followed by the deployment of a pilot chute and three main chutes.

A rotation handle will be deployed to align the spacecraft for landing at approximately two minutes and 49 seconds before touchdown. The large base
heat shield will be jettisoned afterward to expose the airbags, which will be deployed at an altitude of around one kilometer before the nighttime touchdown.

Once Calypso lands, cargo that was loaded aboard the spacecraft by the CFT crew for the return home will be unloaded and the spacecraft will be safed. The spacecraft will be inspected and returned to Boeing for reuse on a future flight, while the company and NASA examine telemetry from the expended
service module and its propulsion system. Starliner under its parachutes for the OFT-2 landing in 2022. (Credit: NASA)

After Starliners return to Earth, further crew changes are scheduled for this month. Soyuz MS-26 is set to fly on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 16:23 UTC with Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner from Roscosmos as well as NASAs Don Pettit. After MS-26 arrives at the Station, a crew handover will take place with Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson returning to Earth on Soyuz MS-25.

Soyuz MS-25s return to Earth is planned for Sept. 24, which is also the current launch date for the revised Crew-9 mission. Crew-9, using Crew Dragon Freedom , will fly with commander Nick Hague and mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos. This will mark the first flight of a Crew Dragon with two crewmembers since the Demo-2 mission in May 2020.

Former Crew-9 members Zena Cardman who had been the mission commander and Stephanie Wilson would presumably be available for future ISS rotations.
Hague and Gorbunov will perform a regular ISS rotation along with the CFT astronauts, and Crew Dragon Freedom will be the spacecraft Hague, Gorbunov, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams use for contingencies and their scheduled return to Earth. Current Crew-9 members from left to right: Nick Hague of
NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov. (Credit: NASA)

Before Crew-9s arrival, Crew Dragon Endeavour has been set up to return the CFT astronauts along with the nominal Crew-8 members in the event of any contingency requiring the evacuation of ISS. After the handover between
Crew-8 and Crew-9, Crew-8 is scheduled to return to Earth sometime this
month.

Prior to the CFT mission, the first operational flight of Starliner Starliner-1 had been scheduled for February 2025. That slot has now been taken by a Crew Dragon flight, Crew-10. When Starliner flies again depends on what remediation actions are required for the propulsion system, as well as any other actions required to validate the spacecrafts safety for operational flights.

( Lead image: The American flag seen through Starliner Calypsos cockpit
window during the CFT mission. Credit: NASA)

The post Starliner Calypso set to undock and return to Earth without CFT crew appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/09/cft-undocking/


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