Moscow. August 13. INTERFAX.RU – The American company Boeing will dismantle the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft from the Atlas V launch vehicle and return it to the assembly shop for troubleshooting, according to a statement on the company's website.
“Today, Boeing notified NASA that the company will dismantle the Starliner from the Atlas V launch vehicle and return the rocket to the cargo and commercial flight complex to thoroughly look for problems in the 4 propulsion valves that have not reopened since the launch canceled on Tuesday.” , – said in a statement.
Earlier it was planned that the CST-100 Starliner will go to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 30, where it will dock to the forward port of the Harmony module, but due to the investigation of the incident with the Russian Nauka module, on which the engines spontaneously started on July 29 postponed to August 3.
However, on August 3, during pre-flight checks of the ship's systems, Boeing specialists discovered that the valves of the Starliner propulsion system did not open as they should, which is why it was decided to cancel the launch three hours before launch.
Boeing has found problems with 13 oxidizer valves in Starliner engines, according to Boeing. At the moment, specialists, through thermal and electrical procedures, have been able to restore the work of nine of them. Boeing is conducting a joint investigation with NASA and the manufacturer of liquid propellant rocket engines Aerojet Rocketdyne.
On December 20, 2019, the first test flight of the spacecraft took place, which ended in failure – it failed to dock with the ISS.
The rocket successfully brought the unmanned spacecraft to a suborbital trajectory. However, after that, it encountered a problem related to a malfunction in the engine time calculation system, as a result of which Starliner entered an abnormal, lower orbit. The spacecraft was running out of fuel, and docking with the ISS became impossible.
He made a successful soft landing at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. This was the first landing of an American descent capsule on land. All previous American vehicles splashed down in the ocean.
Subsequently, according to NASA, the spacecraft underwent a number of changes to solve the problem with the software, and changes were also applied to the docking system. The nose of the CST-100 Starliner was fitted with protective skin similar to that used on SpaceX's Dragon Endeavor.
The port, which will occupy the CST-100 Starliner, was liberated by the Crew Dragon on July 21, which was carrying NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrow and Megan MacArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA astronaut Tom Peske.
The OFT-2 mission will test the various capabilities of the Starliner – launch, docking, re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, and desert landing in the Western United States.
