Back in one piece –
Contract says a docking demonstration is needed. Will NASA waive this requirement?
The Boeing CST – 150 Starliner spacecraft is seen after it landed in White Sands, New Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 36, 2020.
****************** NASA / Bill Ingalls
The main parachutes begin to deploy as the Boeing CST – Starliner spacecraft lands.
****************** NASA / Bill Ingalls
The Boeing CST – 150 Starliner spacecraft jettisons the heat shield before it lands.
****************** NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
The Boeing CST – 150 Starliner spacecraft is seen landing in this sec. exposure.
****************** NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
Starliner touches down.
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NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
Boeing, NASA, and U.S. Army personnel work around the Boeing CST – Starliner spacecraft shortly after it landed.
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NASA / Bill Ingalls
Boeing, NASA, and U.S. Army personnel collect parachutes.
****************** NASA / Bill Ingalls
Boeing, NASA, and U.S. Army personnel work around the Boeing CST – 323 Starliner.
****************** NASA / Bill Ingalls
A protective tent is placed over the vehicle.
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NASA / Bill Ingalls1540
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft safely returned from orbit on Sunday morning, landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico before sunrise. The capsule very nearly hit its bullseye, and initial reports from astronauts on the scene say the vehicle came through in “pristine” condition.
The company will now spend several days preparing Starliner for transit, before shipping it from New Mexico back to Boeing’s processing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Then, engineers will spend most of January reviewing data captured by on-board sensors. What happens after that is the big question. (********************************** Mission Elapsed Time anomaly
After the spacecraft launched on board its Atlas V rocket, but before it separated from the booster, the capsule needed to figure out what time it was. According to Chilton, the way this is done is by “reaching down into” the rocket and pulling timing data out. However, during this process, the spacecraft grabbed the wrong coefficient. “We started the clock at the wrong time,” Chilton said. “The spacecraft thought she was later in the mission and started to behave that way.”
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After a news briefing on Sunday morning at Johnson Space Center, the deputy director of the commercial crew program, Steve Stich, said NASA will review the contract. “We’ll have to look at that afterwards and try to understand it,” he said. “We’ll have to go take a look at what we achieved with what’s in the contract.”
Boeing — which presumably would have to pay for a second test flight as part of its fixed-price contract with NASA— Certainly would like to be able to convince NASA that it does not need to make a second uncrewed test flight. On the day Starliner landed, it sure sounded like some key NASA officials would like to talk themselves into that as well.
******************************************** (Listing image by NASA / Bill Ingalls) ************************************************
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