Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams on 5th June 2024, at 10:52 AM, a Starliner spacecraft was launched in America. It was carrying two experienced astronauts from NASA. Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams, they were going on a small trip to the International Space Station. The spacecraft they were travelling in, Starliner is a bit special. It was built by a private company, Boeing. The same company that makes Aeroplanes and recently, many of those Aeroplanes crashed. This Starliner spacecraft is still in the developing stage. And this particular mission was the last step to test the capabilities of the Boeing Starliner. That’s why this mission was literally named Boeing Crew Flight Test.
How Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams Spacecraft Docking at the International Space Station
The next day, after 27 hours, at 1:34 PM, this spacecraft begins docking at the International Space Station. It was a successful docking. And after some time, both the astronauts happily enter the Space Station. Look at this video. was so excited while entering. This successful docking meant that Boeing became the world’s second private company to make and fly a human orbital spacecraft. Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams Before this, only SpaceX had done this. To date, only 3 countries have been able to do this. Russia, the USA, and China. But the celebration for this good news could not last long. This Starliner mission was supposed to last only 8 days. Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams had to return to Earth after 8 days. But today, even after 3 months, both these astronauts are stuck in space. There are many problems with this spacecraft because of which it cannot be used again. According to NASA, these astronauts will remain there for 8 months.
The Majors Problems Faces by the Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams Spacecraft
The first launch date for Starliner CST was set to 6th May 2024. The launch of 5th June was actually planned for 6th May. But on 6th May, only 2 hours before the launch the countdown was stopped due to a faulty pressure valve. The Atlas V rocket to which this spacecraft is attached, had a faulty pressure valve. Then on 1st June, another attempt was made but it was cancelled again just 4 minutes before the launch. This time, instead of a human, a computer abort system was the one to cancel it. And then on 5th June, you’ll find it hard to believe that before this scheduled launch, Boeing and NASA’s engineers, were trying to manage a helium leak. Helium is the main gas which runs the propulsion system and fires the spacecraft’s thrusters. When this spacecraft attaches to the International Space Station, and docks in it, bringing it to the exact line, docking, undocking, these are done by the thrusters. And to operate these thrusters, helium is needed.
NASA and Boeing engineers said that there was a helium leak due to a defective seal. But this leak was not a big deal. It was manageable and wasn’t supposed to cause a big problem. This is why the launch was postponed once again. But a few hours after the launch, two more leaks were discovered. When Starliner reaches the space station, they discover a fourth helium leak. After 4 leaks, the Commercial Crew Program Manager of Boeing finally admitted that they don’t know what is the problem, and that they need to first understand the root cause. This is not an isolated error, this is a major systematic problem. Apart from this, another problem arose hours before the docking of the Starliner, it was found that 5 out of the 28 thrusters on the Starliner were not working properly. Seeing this happen, Spacecraft Commander Barry Wilmore had to manually control the spacecraft. Working with the engineers on the ground, he reset the thrusters and fired them again.4 out of 5 thrusters start working again. And so, the Starliner successfully docked at the ISS. Steve Stich, the Commercial Crew Program Manager at NASA says that this failure was due to a data issue. It had nothing to do with the hardware of the thruster
History of Boeing Starliner Spacecraft In Which Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams Going To International Space Station