Boeing [BA] delayed by roughly six months its first human mission to the International Space Station with its CST-100 Starliner capsule as well as a number of key tests.
Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale said Wednesday the company moved “post certification mission 1,” or the first human mission to ISS, to December 2018 while “post certification mission 2” was moved to January 2019. Barksdale also said the pad abort test was postponed to January 2018, the orbital flight test to June 2018 and the crew flight test to August 2018.
Boeing previously forecasted two CST-100 events for 2017: the pad abort test in October and the orbital flight test in December. Launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) said in a statement the first uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2018.
Barksdale attributed the delays to development to production delays, which he said Boeing is now stabilizing; minor component qualification test issues, which he said Boeing has worked through; and restarting the manufacturing of a spacecraft dome since Boeing had one damaged during manufacturing. Boeing, Barksdale said, will continue to incorporate these hard lessons throughout the build and test campaigns.
Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are under contract as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program to deliver humans to ISS. SpaceX is ahead of Boeing in its Commercial Crew development program as it performed a pad abort test with its Dragon space capsule in May 2015. SpaceX in late 2015 expected to perform its first human missions in Dragon by 2017 (Defense Daily; Sept. 4, 2015). The company did not return a request for comment by press time Thursday.
ULA and Boeing on Thursday also unveiled an updated aerodynamic configuration of the Atlas V rocket that will launch Starliner after the two companies encountered unique challenges with aerodynamic stability and loads. This new configuration incorporates an aeroskirt aft of the spacecraft, extending the Starliner service module cylindrical surface to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the integrated launch configuration and bring loads margins back to acceptable flight levels, according to a ULA statement.
Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of human and commercial services, said in a statement that NASA, Boeing and ULA completed three wind tunnel tests in six months to investigate the aerodynamic stability of various configurations and to anchor their analytical predictions. Based on this information, he said ULA updated the configuration for the Atlas V Starliner integrated vehicle stack.
“This configuration is unique because it combines the Atlas V launch vehicle without a payload fairing with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, resulting in different aerodynamic interactions,” Wentz said.
The aeroskirt is a metallic orthogrid structure designed to be jettisoned for improved performance. In the unlikely event that an emergency occurs during boost phase of flight, the aeroskirt has venting provisions to control over-pressurization if the Starliner’s abort engines are fired.
Fabrication of the aeroskirt is scheduled to begin this month at ULA’s factory in Decatur, Ala., following completion of a production readiness review. Boeing vice president and program manager for Commercial Crew John Mulholland said in a statement that the company’s testing indicates the solution chosen will sufficiently smooth the air flow around the vehicle during ascent, ensuring crew safety and mission success.
The ULA team completed the aeroskirt preliminary design review (PDR) earlier this month. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin [LMT].