Thespacecraft had a dicey dockingat the orbiting space station, which was marked by a number of technical issues.
Five of the spacecraft thrusters failed during its approach, and four were subsequently recovered.
The rendezvous was a little bit more demanding on the propulsion system, Stich said.
The Starliner spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s forward port.Photo: NASA
Starliner also developedfive helium leaks, one of which had been identified prior to its launch.
The engineering teams now believe the leaks may be related to the activity of the thrusters.
Helium is used in the spacecrafts thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire without being combustible or toxic.
Easy math tells us thats 10%.
We want to understand how the thrusters will perform during the deorbit burn, Stich said.
Engineers also are evaluating an RCS oxidizer isolation valve in the service module thats not properly closed.
Despite all these issues, Stich said that Starliner teams feel really comfortable about return now.
Boeing launched two uncrewed flights to the ISS, which also suffered from a number of glitches.
This is the vehicles first time carrying a crew to orbit.
NASAs Stich reiterated that the Starliner teams also learned that the vehicles service module is a very complicated module.
Perhaps we could have done different testing on the ground to characterize some of that ahead of time.
Starliner can stay docked to the ISS for a maximum of 45 days during its current mission.
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