The Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission, which involves the second test attempt of the Starliner spacecraft without a crew to reach the International Space Station (ISS), is unlikely to take place this year, reports SpaceNews a statement by Katie Leaders, who recently headed the NASA Space Operations Directorate.
According to Leaders, experts from Boeing and NASA have not yet established a specific cause of problems with the valves of several low-thrust engines, because of which the OFT-2 mission, scheduled for August, was postponed.
According to the head of the Directorate of Space Operations, "the team is still engaged in troubleshooting," as a result of which the Starliner will most likely fly to the ISS in 2022. "Last month, Boeing representatives said that an oxidizer (diazote tetraoxide) seeps through the Teflon seals on the valves and interacts with moisture on the "dry" side of the valve, forming nitric acid, which corrodes the valves and causes them to close," the newspaper writes.
Leaders added that experts have studied the " dry "side of the valves and are currently considering removing them to study the" wet " side. The head of the Space Operations Directorate noted that the possibility of replacing the Starliner service module, in which there are problems with the valves, is being considered.
The first time a Starliner tried to fly without a crew to the ISS was in December 2019. This attempt was unsuccessful. Due to a software glitch, the Starliner did not reach the ISS, but managed to successfully return to Earth.
This reusable spacecraft is designed to deliver up to seven people to the ISS. The 13-ton Starliner can stay in near-Earth orbit as part of the ISS for up to 210 days, and about three days in an unmanned autonomous flight. The diameter of the spacecraft is 4.56 meters, the height is 5.03 meters, which exceeds the dimensions of the Apollo command module, which sent the first people to the Moon. One Starliner capsule allows up to ten launches into space. The landing of the spacecraft is carried out on land and involves the use of a heat shield, a parachute system and an airbag. The main developer of the Starliner is Boeing.
Currently, people are being delivered to the ISS by Russian disposable Soyuz MS spacecraft and American reusable Crew Dragon.
Ivan Potapov