Friday, June 7, 2024

Welcome Back to the ISS, Butch and Suni!

Boeing's Starliner Calypso capsule, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard, approaches the International Space Station for docking...on June 6, 2024.
NASA

Boeing’s Crew Flight Test on Starliner Docks to Station (News Release - June 6)

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, successfully docked to the International Space Station at 1:34 p.m. EDT. Starliner launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 10:52 a.m. on June 5 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

During flight, Wilmore and Williams successfully performed manual piloting demonstrations of Starliner and completed a sleep period. Prior to crew sleep, mission teams identified three helium leaks in the spacecraft.

One of these was previously discussed before flight along with a management plan, and the other two occured when the spacecraft arrived in orbit. To monitor and manage these leaks, the three helium manifolds were closed in flight during the crew’s sleep period and were all reopened ahead of rendezvous and docking operations.

After docking, all Starliner manifolds are closed per normal plans.

As Starliner began its approach to the space station, five reaction control system thrusters failed off during flight. Mission teams performed a series of hot-fire tests which re-enabled four of the thrusters while the crew manually piloted the spacecraft at the station’s 200-meter hold point.

After re-selecting four of the thrusters, Starliner had the fault tolerance required to approach the space station for docking. At the 10-meter hold point, the mission team completed system readiness evaluations and proceeded with docking.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Boeing's Starliner Calypso capsule several minutes after it docked to the International Space Station...on June 6, 2024.
NASA TV

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore take a group photo with the seven Expedition 71 crew members after Starliner Calypso's two astronauts were greeted aboard the International Space Station...on June 6, 2024.
NASA TV

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