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SpaceX and NASA are on track for the Crew-2 Dragon spacecraft currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS) to perform a “port relocation” maneuver early Wednesday, effectively opening the door to the Starlink flight test of Boeing.
Scheduled to be launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket no earlier than (NET) on July 30, Boeing’s Starliner will fly for the first time since the spacecraft’s near-catastrophic orbital flight (OFT) debut in December 2019. During Starliner’s maiden test flight, a combination of Boeing’s inept software development, shoddy quality control, and inexplicably lax NASA oversight allowed the spacecraft to launch with a unusable software.
As a result, things went wrong just seconds after Atlas V – which nominally worked – deployed Starliner. Almost as easy as using the wrong clock, the first software flaw – something that would have been detected instantly with even the most rudimentary integrated systems test – made Starliner think he was in another part of the mission. OFT and wasting much of its fuel. with thousands of unnecessary thruster shots.
In addition to pushing Starliner’s maneuver thrusters beyond their design limits, these unplanned and unexpected misfires also deflected the spacecraft, obscuring Boeing and NASA’s ability to communicate and control the spacecraft and to resolve the current situation. Eventually, the company regained control of Starliner, but not before it had exhausted most of its propellant reserves, which rules out rendezvous and docking plans with the ISS.
Less than three hours before re-entry, Boeing also discovered a separate software issue with the thruster that could have caused the Starliner capsule to lose stability and re-impact its disposable trunk section after separation.
Ultimately, with so many problems and failure to collect any kind of data related to operations on and around the ISS, NASA thankfully forced Boeing to plan to repeat OFT with Orbital Flight Test 2 ( OFT-2). Scheduled to launch in December 2020 from the second half of that year, OFT-2 finally slipped – both for programming and technical reasons – in March, June and finally July 30, 2021.
More than 19 months after Starliner’s ill-fated debut, NASA and Boeing are now almost ready for the critical spacecraft overhaul. For unknown reasons, however, NASA and / or Boeing apparently need (or prefer) Starliner to use a specific docking port – the same port to which SpaceX’s second operational Crew Dragon spacecraft is currently docked. As a result, SpaceX and NASA have scheduled a port relocation maneuver around 7:00 a.m. EDT (UTC-4) on Wednesday, July 21.
SpaceX’s first relocation took place in early April to prepare for the arrival of a second Crew Dragon later this month. When Crew-1 Dragon left a few weeks after the maneuver, it would leave the zenith port (facing space) of the station free for a Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft that was due to arrive about a month later. Due to the geometry of the station and the layout of the ports, only the overhead port allows its Canadarm2 robotic arm to unload unpressurized cargo from the Dragon chest.
Already at the forward port, the Crew-2 Dragon will therefore move to the zenith port for the brief stay of 1 to 2 weeks of Starliner at the ISS. However, as it may have become clear, Crew Dragon will then have to to move out in the forward port for any future Cargo Dragon mission – one of which should be launched with a large unpressurized payload as of August 29.
No matter why, it’s hard to complain about seeing dragons flying. Tune in around 6:30 a.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. UTC) to watch Crew Dragon C206 maneuver around an orbital space station.
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