thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Its return was successful. That's the good news, but the flight was not without incident: "Flight controllers conducted more test firings of the capsule’s thrusters following undocking; one failed to ignite. Engineers suspect the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become, causing protective seals to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant. They won’t be able to examine any of the parts; the section holding the thrusters was ditched just before reentry."

So they've recovered the capsule, and now they have a theory about what caused the thruster malfunction. And it's not difficult to test thrusters under high temperature as they have test chambers that can easily simulate those conditions. So we may have some answers on the thrusters forthcoming.

But we still don't know about the helium leak. Helium is kinda tricky. It's a very small molecule and can leak easily, that's why rubber helium balloons shrink so rapidly. The mylar helium balloons keep their inflation because mylar is less leaky than rubber: harder for the gas to escape.

Included in the capsule were the two astronauts' space suits and some old lab equipment.

The article has a video of the capsule undocking from the ISS which is pretty cool, seeing the thrusters firing to change its orientation.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/astronauts-left-behind-boeing-starliner-capsule-returns_n_66dbe6e5e4b01c1d24fc405c

Date: 2024-09-07 08:09 pm (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
Well, hopefully they'll have more information and have solved issues when they throw the next one up, but it is beginning to look like Boeing is not going to succeed much at all in space things.

Date: 2024-09-07 11:30 pm (UTC)
disneydream06: (Disney Surprised)
From: [personal profile] disneydream06
UGH.......
Always gotta be issues. :o
Hugs, Jon

Date: 2024-09-08 01:48 pm (UTC)
disneydream06: (Disney Shocked)
From: [personal profile] disneydream06
Well deserved microscope. :o

Date: 2024-09-09 11:57 pm (UTC)
kaishin108: dog in vw by hwm (Default)
From: [personal profile] kaishin108
I was so relieved those two astronauts did not ride back in it!

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