After some tense moments, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived safely at the International Space Station on Thursday just after 1:30 p.m.
“Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said when the first pairing was confirmed.
The docking was delayed more than an hour from the original docking time of 12:15 p.m. EDT after post-launch problems arose. During the crew rest period, the teams discovered two additional helium leaks coming from the service module, bringing the total to three, explaining the leak that contributed to the lengthy launch delay last month.
NASA and Boeing officials have repeatedly emphasized that Starliner’s systems are built to provide a lot of redundancy, meaning if something goes wrong, there are other options. New problems became apparent as Starliner approached the station. Control teams held the dock as five thrusters went offline.
As the space station and Starliner moved in and out of orbit during the night, it remained to be seen whether Boeing could make this important milestone flight. But it didn’t take long before the docking was confirmed and the astronauts safely entered the station.
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Starliner Crewed Flight Test reaches space
Boeing’s Starliner launched atop an Atlas V rocket and made its inaugural crewed launch about 26 hours before docking.
This launch came after a scrub on May 6, which was caused by a faulty oxygen valve on the second stage of the Atlas V rocket. What followed was a delay of about a month when teams discovered a helium leak in the Starliner spacecraft, which was later confined to a thruster. Officials have said their analysis showed that even with the leak, the Starliner could still get the crew home safely even in the worst-case scenario, allowing them to continue despite the leak.
The Starliner launch was scrapped for a second time on June 1 due to problems with the directions given to the Atlas V rocket during the final part of the countdown.
On June 5, the third attempt turned out to be the right moment. Starliner blasted off the pad and entered orbit on what appeared to be a smooth flight. No issues were reported during a post-launch press conference.
However, while the crew slept that night, ground teams discovered two additional helium leaks coming from the spacecraft’s service module: the spacecraft’s disposable floor that contains thrusters. This is the same area of the original helium leak that was reportedly due to a seal failure.
“A few days later we went back and proved to ourselves that the leak was stable,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program at Boeing, during a NASA press conference in late May.
Officials said if a thruster in the service module were to leak again, the system could handle another four leaks.
NASA had posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Teams have identified three helium leaks on the spacecraft. One of these was previously discussed before the flight, along with a management plan. The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived in orbit. Two of the affected helium valves are closed and the spacecraft remains stable.”
As the crew headed toward port, few official updates were released. But when Starliner came in at 12:15 for the original docking attempt, it was clear that more problems had arisen. Multiple reaction control thrusters (RCS) were disabled on the Starliner spacecraft, prompting teams to conduct a “hot fire” test.
At the post-dock press conference, Steve Stich, the program manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said, “It’s in different doghouses. It’s a different thruster, so the helium leak and the thrusters are completely unrelated.”
Williams and Wilmore took manual control of the spacecraft and kept it in a hold more than 200 meters away from the International Space Station, a distance that ensures safety.
The cause of the problem with the bow thruster is still unknown.
“When I say a thruster fails, I mean the software sees something it doesn’t like about that thruster… so the thruster may have a little less thrust or the rate at which the thrust increases doesn’t exactly match the software And so what that software does, it says, ‘I won’t use that thruster anymore’. So when we say the thruster is broken, we’re talking about the fact that it’s not available for use by the GNC flight software, Stich said.
As the teams conducted tests on the thrusters, all but one turned back on. Meanwhile, as teams looked to switch Starliner back to autonomous mode, it was confirmed that Starliner had completed the astronauts’ manual control evaluation – one of the goals that must be met to certify the spacecraft to fly with NASA crews.
“Once we had the excess staff we needed, we kept going,” Stitch said.
When the spacecraft was cleared to approach the space station, the camera-guided system guided it to the Harmony module’s docking port. Starliner moved slowly toward port and made a “soft catch,” or contact, just after 1:30 p.m. EDT.
A hard docking was confirmed just before 2 p.m. Starliner had delivered the crew safely to the International Space Station. During the NASA TV livestream, Wilmore described the station as an “amazing place to be.”
An investigation was conducted into some residue on the Starliner’s front window, but NASA has announced that this is not a problem.
After pressurizing the connection module and making sure everything was in good working order, Williams and Willmore floated through the hatch just before 4:00 PM EDT. The two astronauts were greeted by a smiling Crew-8, which had launched to the station in early March. This brought the total number of people on the space station to nine.
On board, the helium leaks will not be a cause for concern, officials said.
“Once we connected to the ISS, we shut off the manifolds in the helium system as planned. That was always part of our operation,” Stich said, before adding that another smaller leak had been discovered.
“So you know helium is a small molecule, it’s easy to escape from seals,” Stich said. “What we need to do in the next few days is look at the leak rate there and figure out what we’re going to do relative to the rest of the mission.”
“If we just look at the top-level numbers, we should absolutely have enough margin,” Stich added.
The earliest landing date given at a press conference after docking was June 14. Starliner would land in the New Mexico desert.
Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or at @brookeofstars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Starliner crew enters space station after problems prior to docking
