Starliner's off nominal, but still safe first flight!
25Starliner's first launch happened today. The Launch was perfect. The Mission Elapse Time was off on Starliner. Starliner needs to perform the final burn of the spacecraft, about 30 minutes after launch. Starliner did not perform the burn on time because of the time issue. The spacecraft time was advanced, and it had thought the burn was completed most likely. It was trying to maintain a VERY tight accuracy, which burns more fuel. The burn did not happen on time, probably because of the time issue.
The issue was noticed by the ground crew. Per procedure, they tried to manually command it 7-8 minutes after the burn should have happened. The TDRS satellites were not in a great orientation at that time, and the spacecraft did not communicate with Starliner in time. By the time they could communicate with Starliner, it was too late to do the burn to get to the ISS with a high enough certainty. They opted for the contingency option to allow for landing at White Sands 48 hours after launch.
After carefully considering all options, NASA and Boeing jointly decided to stick with the contingency plan, and will land on Sunday morning to White Sands.
Video used from NASA, Boeing, and ULA, under terms of fair use.
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