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BREMEN, Germany – NASA has released new target dates for commercial space capsule test flights under development by SpaceX and Boeing, with SpaceX Crew Dragon unmanned demonstration missions and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft of BoXing scheduled for January and March, followed by the orbital mission with crew missions in mid-2019.
The new test flight schedule for commercial crews was released Thursday by NASA, which promised more timely updates as the Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner approach their first space missions.
In early August, when NASA last announced its flight test targets for commercial crews, the SpaceX Crew Dragon was to be launched in November on a test flight to the Station. unmanned international space. At the same time, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner was to embark on a similar demonstration mission in January.
These schedules have decreased by two months since August.
Unmanned test flights will be followed by crew flights for each spacecraft. The first launch of Crew Dragon with astronauts on board is now scheduled for June, and the first crew flight of the CST-100 Starliner is scheduled for next August. These will be followed by "post-certification missions", a series of launches and landings to refresh the crews of the station and bring the departing crews home.
NASA said scheduling the launch date for commercial flight test flights entered a new phase with both vehicles a few months after takeoff. Managers will balance the readiness of each satellite, the space station schedule, and the availability of the US Air Force's Eastern Range Program, which provides security and support services to all launches from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
"As we approach the launch of a human spacecraft from the United States, we can be more specific in our schedules," said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space flight development at NASA headquarters. "This allows our technical teams to work effectively to meet the most up-to-date schedules, while allowing us to provide regular updates on the progress of our business partners.
"This new reporting process of our calendar is better; Nevertheless, launch dates will remain uncertain and we expect that they may change in the approaching launch, "said McAlister. "These are new spacecraft, and the engineering teams have a lot of work to do before the systems are ready to fly."
NASA said SpaceX intended to prepare its spacecraft and rocket equipment for the first flight of Crew Dragon – known as the Demo-1 – in December. But the launch of the Demo-1 mission will only take place in January to "allow docking" at the space station.
The research laboratory in orbit has a busy schedule of cargo and crew vehicle visits. A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship is expected to arrive at the station in mid-November and a SpaceX Dragon refueling ship is scheduled to meet the station in early December.
In addition to supply flights, a Soyuz spacecraft is expected to disarm from the outpost on Dec. 13 in order to bring back outgoing station commander Alexander Gerst, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and the astronaut back to Earth. from NASA Serena Auñón-Chancellor. A week later, another Soyuz spacecraft will start with a three-man crew from Russia to bring the space station staff back to five.
These missions all use different docking ports than those used by Crew Dragon, but station managers prefer to space out arrivals and departures of major touring vehicles in order to alleviate the workload of astronauts and crews. ground controllers.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of building systems reliability and SpaceX flights, said Wednesday that the company "was getting closer" to the first test flight of Crew Dragon, but explained the reason for the delay of the Next year for "paperwork".
"We are working hard to make this happen this year, but at this point, the hardware may be ready, but we may still have work to do on paper, paperwork and certification," he said. Koenigsmann. in a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany. "Whether we fly or not this year will be an urgent call."
The Crew Dragon crew module for Flight Demo-1 – the section that will host astronauts on future missions – was delivered to Cape Canaveral in July. According to a presentation by Kathy Lueders, head of NASA's commercial team program, to NASA's Advisory Board in August, the engineers also completed the qualification tests on a helium pressure vessel redesigned for the first time. Second stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, replacing the concept of Pressurant tank. blamed for the explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket on a launch pad in Florida before a commercial satellite mission in September 2016.
Meanwhile, the assembly of the CST-100 Starliner Space Shuttle assigned to Boeing's first commercial flight crew – dubbed Orbital Test Flight, or OFT – continues in a former shuttle hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The capsule ready to fly as part of the OFT mission is actually the third Boeing build. The first CST-100 Starliner, known as Spacecraft 1, will be tested for abandonment next year, while Spacecraft 2 will soon be shipped from KSC to Boeing's satellite plant in El Segundo, California. for environmental testing, then will return to Florida for the flight test of the crew next year.
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner missions will be launched on the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets. Sport enhancements such as the Centaur twin-engine upper stage and a new security computer to monitor the health of the rocket, the Atlas 5 intended to launch the Orbital Flight Test is completed and ready for shipment from the ULA Rocket Factory, Alabama, Cape Canaveral.
One of the main reasons for Boeing delays is a problem encountered during a hot test of Starliner stopping engines earlier this year on a test bench in White Sands, New Mexico.
At the end of a brief ignition of the four engine launch stop engines, designed to move the capsule away from the failed rocket, several of the engine valves did not close completely, resulting in a spill. fuel.
Boeing says its engineers have identified the problem and will repeat the hot test before conducting a large-scale abandonment test to demonstrate Starliner's ability to safely transport astronauts in an emergency. on the launching pad.
"We have opted for a hardware patch and hotfix that will alleviate the problem we encountered with the campfire earlier this year," said Chris Ferguson, former astronaut commander of the Boeing space shuttle , who will fly aboard the CST-100. Starliner crew flight test next year. "They will be included in the next hot test because we will have to repeat an element of what we did not prove ourselves in the first test, which will probably happen in March / April."
"There is a change of engineering equipment, a small one, and a software change that will be built into the main fuel valves that will alleviate the problem," said Ferguson.
Ferguson, a former US Navy test pilot, commanded the last Space Shuttle mission in 2011, and then joined Boeing to help manage the development of the CST-100 Starliner. Boeing announced in July that Ferguson would return to space during the flight test of the crew, and NASA tasked astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann to accompany him on his trip to the airport. space station.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are assigned to the Crew Dragon's Demo-2 mission.
Boeing and NASA have reached an agreement allowing officials to extend the flight test stay of the crew at the space station from a few days or weeks to six months, which would allow US astronauts to keep the aircrew alive. access to the research complex in case of further delays of the commercial crew.
NASA has paid Russia space for US astronauts aboard Russian Soyuz Ferries throughout the next year. According to the terms of the contract with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the final landing of Soyuz with a member of the American crew is scheduled for January 2020.
The Boeing and SpaceX spacecraft, owned and operated by their manufacturers, and not NASA, will end US dependence on Russian Soyuz capsules for the transportation of astronauts to the United States. space station. Once the CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon ships are operational, NASA and Roscosmos plan to fly an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut at each launch of the crew at the station as part of an agreement. of bartering without exchange of money, thereby guaranteeing the presence of at least one crew member from each country. is always present on the laboratory in orbit.
However, officials are concerned that the commercial crew space shuttle will not be ready for regular crew rotation flights before NASA gains access to the Soyuz seats, prompting the agreement with Boeing to transform the test. Crewed flight on a long-term mission.
Managers will decide to exercise this option in the coming months.
"If necessary, we are preparing for a long stay in the International Space Station," said Ferguson, referring to the training of his crew with NASA.
Ferguson, 57, then announced that he would join his NASA teammates to help with the station's upkeep.
"Boeing is committed to providing manual work on the space station," Ferguson said. "We will receive limited training on systems, on how to help in an emergency, and on the workforce in general, all that is needed on ISS.
"I'm no stranger to ISS," he said. "I have a fairly reasonable idea of what needs to be done regularly, and I know there are never enough hands, so I'm sure there will be a lot of work to keep me busy if we stay there -haut. "
He added that he had never expected to live and work on the space station for months. His space shuttle missions each lasted less than two weeks.
"I'll kiss him," he said. "It would be a very useful way to refine a career in spaceflight."
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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