Introduction to Boeing Starliner
A class of Boeing Starliner spacecraft that can be partially reusable (also known as CST-100) is made to carry crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and other spots in low-Earth orbit. Boeing is the creator, and the key customer is NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The spacecraft is made up of an expendable service module and a crew capsule that can be used on up to ten missions at once.
Design and Structure of Starliner
With a diameter of 15 feet (4.56 meters), the capsule is smaller than the Artemis Orion capsule and slightly bigger than the Apollo command module or SpaceX Crew Dragon. Up to seven people can board a Starliner, and it can stay docked on the ISS for up to seven months. Starliner is launched from Space Launch Complex 41 aboard an Atlas V N22 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Development Timeline and Challenges
NASA picked out Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract round after many rounds of competitive development contracts within the Commercial Crew Program beginning in 2010. At first, the first crewed test flight test was going to be held in 2017.
It took until December 20, 2019, for the first unmanned Orbital Flight Test to take place, and it was looked at as a partial failure. It took Boeing more than two years to finish the second Orbital Flight Test, which was finally completed on May 19, 2022. On June 5, 2024, the Crew Flight Test finally took off after several more delays. As late as thruster issues on the spacecraft are solved or better understood, the eight-day journey has yet to be authorized to return to Earth.
Boeing Starliner: Financial Impact and Criticisms
Over $1.5 billion has been lost by Boeing due to the budget flown over on the Starliner project, which has been troubled with technical snags, managerial problems, and delays. The NASA inspector general and analysts who showed the much lower expenditures on the competing Crew Dragon have also criticized the price paid per trip.
Only after commercial space station potential and available NASA commercial crew contracts permitted the business case to close did Boeing fund Starliner’s development in 2010. By 2010, the business had earned $18 million for early design work under the NASA Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contract; having said that, even with Boeing going in for more NASA contracts, notable private funding would be needed to finish development. Due to this, Boeing was bare to typical corporate financial risk, which was a minor component of the traditional cost-plus contracting that Boeing had previously engaged in for space capsule work.
NASA Contracts and Funding
In April 2011, NASA awarded Boeing a US$92.3 million contract to proceed with CST-100 development under CCDev phase 2. Boeing will be given US$460 million to continue working on the CST-100 as part of the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program, NASA said on August 3, 2012.
Given that Boeing has met with several charges against earnings for the Starliner program by 2022 as a result of a slowdown and technical affairs. $185 million in October 2021, $410 million in 2020, and $288 million by the third quarter of 2022 are all included in this.
On June 5, 2024, the first crewed test flight was launched. The pilot and commander were NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, respectively. Starliner’s first mission is expected to launch in 2025. Starliner, like Dragon, will carry four astronauts on operational trips to the International Space Station. Dragon and Starliner spacecraft will take turns transporting humans to the International Space Station (ISS) after NASA declares Starliner operational.
Unique Features of the Atlas V N22 Rocket
The Starliner is launched by the Atlas V N22, which has two SRBs, two Centaur engines, and no fairing. The Starliner spacecraft is finally released at stage separation, nearly 15 minutes after lift-off on an 181 km-high (112 mi) suborbital trajectory, just below the orbital velocity needed to enter a stable orbit around Earth. It has gone through the stages of max q, SRB jettison, booster separation, Centaur ignition, nosecone, and aeroskirt jettison. The Starliner’s engines, installed atop its service module, launch the spacecraft into orbit to continue its voyage to the International Space Station once it separates from the Dual Engine Centaur.
Technical Innovations and Safety Features
The Starliner N22 layout is unique. Fairings are necessary for all other Atlas V payloads, but Starliner cannot employ one since it needs to be able to execute a “launch abort.” On top of that, Starliner uses the two-engine Centaur upper stage, which is more flexible in terms of abort options in the event of a launch failure than the single-engine version used by all other Atlas V payloads. Crew safety is improved by these changes. The sole crewed payload aboard Atlas V is Starliner.
Robert Bigelow, the CEO of Bigelow Aerospace, first announced the capsule to the public in June 2010 under the moniker CST-100 (Crew Space Transportation-100). The acronym for Crew Space Transportation is CST. According to reports, the number 100 in the name corresponds to the height of the Kármán line, which is the most commonly used definition of the limit of space, which is 100 km (62 mi).
The Orbital Express project, supported by the Department of Defense, and Boeing’s experience with NASA’s Apollo, Space Shuttle, and ISS missions are also incorporated into the design. Although Starliner is unrelated to Orion, it is occasionally mistaken for the previous, comparable Orion-derived Orion Lite concept that Bigelow Aerospace was purportedly developing with Lockheed Martin’s technical support.