20 votes

Boeing’s Starliner will perform a unique ‘breakout burn’ as it returns to earth on friday, without astronauts

Posted by drannex
Tags: spaceflight.commercial, usa, boeing.starliner, nasa, international space station, maneuvers, spacecraft, author.passant rabie, source.gizmodo
https://gizmodo.com/boeings-troubled-starliner-will-perform-a-breakout-burn-as-it-returns-to-earth-without-astronauts-2000494784

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Authors
Passant Rabie, Isaac Schultz, Harri Weber
Published
Sep 4 2024
Word count
614 words

6 comments

  1. drannex
    Link
    bolding and italics are mine Of course, they are going to downplay it, but the word on the wire is that they are absolutely terrified that this is what could happen because the thrusters have been...

    The spacecraft is set to leave the ISS on Friday, using a modified maneuver designed to ensure a quicker and safer departure from the space station.

    Shortly after undocking from the space station’s Harmony module, Starliner will execute a breakout burn that will take the spacecraft up, over, and back behind the ISS. “This alternate approach…it just helps us to get Starliner away from ISS more quickly,” Dana Weigel, ISS program manager, said during a press conference on Wednesday.

    Starliner has made two uncrewed trips to the ISS, both times it carried out a standard undocking whereby it backs up and then starts an engine burn to go up and over the space station. At the top of the space station, it would then do a departure burn to send it down underneath the ISS where it would coast and wait for its time to deorbit. For the breakout burn, Starliner will instead immediately start going up and away from the ISS. From there, it will take the spacecraft about three or four orbits before executing its deorbit burn that would dip it into Earth’s atmosphere.

    “It puts less stress on the thrusters,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during the press conference. “In other words, there’s fewer thruster firings. After undocking, we’ll start this small series of burns using primarily the forward thrusters…and it’s really about five minutes or so to execute that whole sequence.”

    During a press conference held earlier today, NASA officials downplayed any suggestions that the breakout burn is meant to prevent Starliner from crashing into the ISS.

    bolding and italics are mine

    Of course, they are going to downplay it, but the word on the wire is that they are absolutely terrified that this is what could happen because the thrusters have been acting even more strange than during launch (where two of them outright failed) and really out of spec. QZ has a decent overview on it and echoes what I've been hearing in whispers.

    16 votes
  2. Sodliddesu
    Link
    Man, I really hope that thing is stable enough that 'less stress' is 'enough less stress for nothing bad to happen.' Calling it "Unique" is a fun way of saying "We've never had to do anything like...

    Man, I really hope that thing is stable enough that 'less stress' is 'enough less stress for nothing bad to happen.'

    Calling it "Unique" is a fun way of saying "We've never had to do anything like this because we've never had something so threatening to this whole mission that it can't even take off normally," though.

    10 votes
  3. [4]
    carsonc
    Link
    For what it's worth, the undocking and the reentry went off perfectly. So good news: the ISS is safe and the astronauts would have survived reentry had they been on board.

    For what it's worth, the undocking and the reentry went off perfectly. So good news: the ISS is safe and the astronauts would have survived reentry had they been on board.

    6 votes
    1. [3]
      PleasantlyAverage
      Link Parent
      Perfectly isn't the word I would use, as one of the crew module thrusters failed, and two of the RCS ones got hotter than expected. My concern is they will use this successful landing to brush off...

      Perfectly isn't the word I would use, as one of the crew module thrusters failed, and two of the RCS ones got hotter than expected. My concern is they will use this successful landing to brush off all their internal issues. At least we are now done with this chapter of Starliner.

      11 votes
      1. [2]
        carsonc
        Link Parent
        I did kind of skip through the video of the undocking and the reentry, so I may have missed those parts. I will say, the tone of the NASA commentators was gushing with praise for the reentry and I...

        I did kind of skip through the video of the undocking and the reentry, so I may have missed those parts. I will say, the tone of the NASA commentators was gushing with praise for the reentry and I may have gotten caught up in the celebratory tone.

        I think the position that the crew would have fine despite a few misfires will be hard to defend, or that NASA should be glad things didn't go worse, will be hard to defend.

        5 votes
        1. PleasantlyAverage
          Link Parent
          Could be that they only mentioned it during the post-landing briefing. Yeah, overall NASA seems happy about its performance. After all they still need it as a backup solution for access to the ISS.

          Could be that they only mentioned it during the post-landing briefing.
          Yeah, overall NASA seems happy about its performance. After all they still need it as a backup solution for access to the ISS.

          2 votes