Starliner: How a 1 Week Mission Became 4 Weeks!

Today's video discusses the updates (and recent delays) with Boeing's Starliner. We'll talk about those helium leaks, thruster issues and its eventual landing that has me super excited. #starliner #nasa #boeing

0:00 Intro
1:03 Docking/Thrusters
2:29 Helium Leaks
3:33 Design Vulnerability
5:00 Spacewalk
6:39 Original Timeline
7:25 The Landing
8:06 Uncrewed Landing
9:00 - Developmental Mission
10:20 Success Thus Far
11:00 Goal
11:45 Outro

Special thanks to Boeing & the NASA Image & Video Library.

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[tostoday]

Enjoy a complimentary extended stay with Boeing

[ajames]

Glad you’re getting the recognition you deserve.

[ARWest-bpyb]

Well it earned it's nickname Stayliner on the ground, so why should it be any different in space?🤣 Best of luck to Butch & Suni on their way home.🤞🤞 Thanks for the update Marion, keep up the good work!👍👍

[pluto]

Four bolts that hold the door plug in place on the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing at the time of last month's blowout on Alaska Airlines flight. I hope they didn't forget to bolt something on Starliner.

[agranero]

One of the problems with the delay is that the EVA for maintenance was to happened while Starliner was supposed to undock and...well nobody was comfortable with that. But more problems caused yet more delay and the Starliner could not be undocked and this caused more delays yet and then that water leakage in the suit (this happened in the past to Luca Parmitano while at EVA once and it was not okay at all).
Helium leaks for incredibly small holes, as noble gases do not form molecules helium atoms are much much smaller that lets say and hydrogen molecule as hydrogen orbitals are relatively large in the molecule, helium is a bitch to contain, but...this stated we have been using helium to pressurize tanks since...well...always, without major problems, this should be a non issue by now.
At certain point someone said to the press that the thrusters problems were caused by software, this is creepy as hell. The thrusters problem being software (if this declaration is true) is the most serious of all, imagine a thruster locked open, at a point of the docking when it is too close to ISS to do something, this could be disastrous (remember the failed attempt to manually couple the Progress into MIR?).
If this claim I read from someone at NASA is true this is a real problem.
They are trying to get the best of a bad situation collecting data to fix the issues, but they are also trying o keep a cold face while sweating like that Doctor character from Total Recall.
Things do not seem dangerous, specially now that it docked at ISS but the future of Starliner is at stake here.
Soyuz landing on land (like the Starliner will do) is a dramatic view, a lot of dust is displaced by the retros when they are activated at the last second. The footage of the first landing of Starliner is not very clear (I think the thermal layer of the air near the ground distorted the image near the ground) and I can't say by it if Starliner uses a retro like Soyuz use.
PS I find this term weird "to land on land" in Portuguese touch down on land is "aterrisar" from, "Terra" (Earth), and at sea is "amerrisar" from "mar" (Sea), on the Moon is "alunissar from "Lua" (Moon) and so on.
PS2 Every time you say "Butch and Suni" I cringe a little because I remember of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid movie.

[geoffguitars]

My 2c is space is hard, really really hard and these kind of problems are to be expected with any new system that hasn't been tried out before. What amazes me is how we manage to do all this incredibly dangerous and complex stuff with so little loss of life. Thanks to you and Fraser Cain for making me aware of stuff I wouldn't otherwise know about 😎 and you present this is a very fun and entertaining way.

[EscapeVelocity]

You know there at the end of the video where Butch is making a speech that they're all excited to be stranded in space, she doesn't sound like she's on helium, despite the helium leak, I know what a helium voice sounds like, did the MiB cut this out of the feed? I was all excited when I heard you saying there was a helium leak, I paused the video, got my popcorn and I was eagerly waiting for this, I've seen astronauts tumbling and doing all kinds of acrobatic tricks before, never heard them on helium, and I was disappointed. Butch sounded fine... she didn't even do a flip or tumble.

[islandsedition]

It's a good reminder as to why most space agencies still pretty much just conduct one flight at a time, especially in terms of manned missions. The risks and the factors to consider are so numerous and complex to factor when addressing arising issues.

However, the delay is a testament to the care and diligence being taken to ensure a safe launch, flight, docking and return.

One wonders how the plans of some companies to launch rockets every few hours can measure up in terms of the same level of safety. I'm looking at you SpaceX.

[lazerathhome]

I got one Question... Has the door fallen off yet? For Starliners Next Trick it will try to fly into the ground...

[stevenscharmer]

Thanks for the update, Marion. I think the issues are relatively minor. However, after the hopefully safe landing of Butch and Suni, it will likely lead to some redesigning of systems. It's best for space endeavors if the U.S. has 2 launch providers for crew. By the way, the Boeing scooper is not working correctly either. They will instead be using tongs to get the crew out.

[dks]

the Apollo thrusters worked. Call those guys.

[louiscypher]

I don't think we should be doing test flights with humans on board. This isn't the 1950's.

[joecanales]

Hi Marion, thanks for the update. I had been thinking of rock hounding around White Sands, but July(???)
Fall would be much nicer weather, but given enough rehydration, even this old desert rat should be able to handle White Sands in July.
Maybe a parasol?

[dks]

congress just questioned the Boeing guy, hard. but didnt axe him about the Starliner !! why not ?

[Nielv]

Don't forget all us little people on the way up, kiddo! ;-) lol

[sjTHEfirst]

I will be saying prayers for the astronauts. Boeing has fallen a long way from their glory days.

[charlesmaurer]

He leak is part of the thruster system and loss of He is the loss of control. Worse the last leak was equal to levels a thruster might use. This is extremely dangerous for returning. The engineers also mentioned those valves were old and were never intended for the prolonged use under pressure as was applied on the pad by several prior aborts. The remaining 10 are required for safe flight. Need another craft to save the crew.

[RectalRooter]

So is this mission is so far a low rung 88.5% successful mission. Houston modern Space Flight has a Problem hahaha
My control issue can't stop me spouting off
Great job spacex and boeing
Changing the motto from Failure is not an Option to
Failure is how is how we learn M'kay

[iugoeswest]

It is getting scarey! Boeing is looking silly at this point.

[classic_sci_fi]

is this Starliner the same capsule that did the unmanned test?