Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) initiative

According NASA live Stream
ULA brought Starliner to the right Orbit (despite missing launch footage)
From here Starliner switch software mode and made a engine Burn.
and then went something wrong
 
Looks like mission fail in terms of space station rendezvous. Apparently the attitude control system wasted too much propellant. Not sure yet why the Starliner boost firing didn't occur. They are blaming the mission timer but haven't said how that prohibited the boost rockets from firing.
 
According to the presser and Bridenstein's tweets earlier, the mission elapsed time error meant that at least some part of Starliner thought that it had already initiated the orbital injection burn (I'm assuming some safety thankfully prevented the burn being conducted while attached to Centaur). As a result though, the deadbands in the RCS control software were tightened, resulting in excessive RCS usage for apparently some 7 or 8 minutes while NASA were trying to connect to Starliner and send the injection burn command. The RCS thrusters are significantly weaker than the main engines, but there's more of them and 7 or 8 minutes is a lot of time to be firing thruster pulses at a relatively high duty cycle.

At the time of the 9:30AM conference they'd consumed approximately 25% of Starliner's propellant and were at something like a 185 x 220km orbit. To raise again to the ISS, perform autonomous docking with RCS, then later leave and deorbit would probably leave them with some propellant left over, but likely a dangerously low amount. That's not to mention that rendezvousing with the ISS might require additional burns or possibly waiting for some length of time that puts it beyond its 60 hour free-flying design life.
 
Apparently the problem was that the issue arose at the exact same time as a ground com gap, so the override command couldn’t be sent.
 
Apparently they will probably not have to re-run toss mission at there’s no requirement to dock with ISS, just to launch and land safely.
 
Starliner Completing Test Objectives While On Orbit, Given Go for Landing Sunday

December 21, 2019

Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test is currently in Mission Day 2, and flight controllers and engineering teams worked through the night and into this morning accomplishing many of the flight test objectives planned for the mission. The spacecraft remains in a circular orbit roughly 250 kilometers above sea level.

Mission control teams in Houston have been pursuing two primary objectives: to maintain spacecraft integrity and orbital trajectory for two landing opportunities on Sunday, Dec. 22., and to complete as many mission tests as possible.

The Mission Management Team has given approval for a Mission Day 3 landing at 5:57 AM MST (6:57 AM CST) at our landing site at White Sands Space Harbor on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, with a backup opportunity at the same site at 1:48 PM MST (2:48 PM CST).


Late yesterday and overnight, flight controllers completed the below activities:

· Conducted two orbital adjustment burns and several smaller checkout burns of the propulsion systems

· Tested Guidance, Navigation and Control hardware including successfully using VESTA camera star tracking functionality to augment Space-Integrated GPS/INS (SIGI) navigational control. These are the “eyes” of the vehicle, which include using star trackers (capturing spacecraft orientation by comparing known star maps to stars the spacecraft observes) and far and near field observations.


· Observed positive performance of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems and executed cabin fan switching

· Communication, commanding and tracking systems testing through both ground links and space-to-space communication, including a positive command uplink from mission control through the International Space Station

· Station keeping and attitude control demonstrations

Throughout the day on Dec. 21, Starliner will attempt to complete NASA docking system checkouts and extension of the soft-capture system and docking ring.
Of note, the vehicle remains healthy, the power system is operating exceptionally and solar arrays are operating at above predicted efficiency, and all separation events to-date were nominal, including ascent cover jettison, aeroskirt jettison and separation from the launch vehicle.

Starliner will retain priority on the TDRS satellite network and Mission Control Center communications channels to ensure data uplink and downlink throughout the remainder of the mission.

 
Well other than that mission timer thing, the rest of it worked. Still hard to figure out why there didn't seem to be redundancy in that architecture.

Timer anomaly explanation

Landing
 

NASA Video

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft completed the first touchdown on land of a human-rated space capsule in U.S. history Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, wrapping up the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Starliner settled gently onto its air bags at 7:58 a.m. EST in a pre-dawn landing that helps set the stage for future crewed landings at the same site. The landing followed a deorbit burn at 7:23 a.m., separation of the spacecraft’s service module, and successful deployment of its three main parachutes and six airbags.
 

Published on 22 Dec 2019

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft completed the first touchdown on land of a human-rated space capsule in U.S. history Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, wrapping up the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Starliner settled gently onto its air bags at 7:58 a.m. EST in a pre-dawn landing that helps set the stage for future crewed landings at the same site. The landing followed a deorbit burn at 7:23 a.m., separation of the spacecraft’s service module, and successful deployment of its three main parachutes and six airbags.

One hour after landing, NASA and Boeing held a news conference at NASA Johnson Space Center with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing’s Space and Launch Division, and Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
 
Ground impact at 2:40 looks gentle. Here at least there should be some cost advantage over Dragon assuming those air bags aren't super expensive.

 
Keep in mind though that the capsules aren't being reused, so how softly they land shouldn't really affect costs (though I can see recovering Dragon from sea more expensive in terms of service equipment than Starliner landing somewhere more convenient on land).
 
Keep in mind though that the capsules aren't being reused, so how softly they land shouldn't really affect costs (though I can see recovering Dragon from sea more expensive in terms of service equipment than Starliner landing somewhere more convenient on land).

What do you mean not being reused, of course they are. This article talks about how minimal the refurbishment will be before is used again.


Both Starliner and Crew Dragon are being designed for multiple reuse. Did you think they spent a fortune building them just to dispose of them after one use?
 
My bad, I was thinking of how (for Crew Dragon) they won't be reused for manned flights - ie that they fly a crew up to the ISS and back, but then only ever carry cargo afterwards.
 
Michael Seeley, Thank you for that great film shot of the launch. Outstanding photography. Being on top of the VAB would be an adventure in itself.

Bravo from Texas!
 

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