NASA announced Friday night that it is again delaying the return to Earth of Boeing Starliner’s spacecraft and two astronauts from the International Space Station.
The thrusters that turn the craft around and allow precise movement aren’t working properly, they barely got the thing to dock with the ISS.
Despite what nasa says publicly, I’m sure there’s a lot of internal debate about if it’s even safe to undock the thing from the station. If it loses orientation control while still close to the ISS, it could easily damage the station and kill people. That’s if some of the damaged thrusters aren’t the ones that allow the craft to go backwards, kind of important if you want to leave the station.
It’s having problems with its RCS system
The thrusters that turn the craft around and allow precise movement aren’t working properly, they barely got the thing to dock with the ISS.
Despite what nasa says publicly, I’m sure there’s a lot of internal debate about if it’s even safe to undock the thing from the station. If it loses orientation control while still close to the ISS, it could easily damage the station and kill people. That’s if some of the damaged thrusters aren’t the ones that allow the craft to go backwards, kind of important if you want to leave the station.
Is leaving it docked to the station with leaks contributing to any drift in the movements of the station’s orbit?
Right now nothing is leaking.
The leaks are only present when the fuel system is open or ready to fire
Well, that’s a relief.
Schrodingers leaks
You know you had 5 leaks yesterday, but you don’t know how many actual leaks you’ll have until you turn it on and look again.
Couldn’t they use the robot arm to fling it away from the station?