Boeing Starliner won't reach the International Space Station and will return to Earth

Emre Kelly | Florida Today

Show Caption Hide Caption Atlas V rocket launches Boeing Starliner capsule from Cape Canaveral A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches Boeing's Starliner capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing's Starliner spacecraft won't reach the International Space Station as planned after its liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Friday, the result of a timing issue that caused the capsule to prematurely burn fuel and fail to reach the required orbit.

Instead, the uncrewed capsule will be directed to land in White Sands, New Mexico, by sometime Sunday morning, a significant cutback of the objectives laid out for the mission known as Orbital Flight Test.

It would have paved the way for astronauts to later launch on a fully crewed flight test, but now it is unclear when Starliner will fly again and whether or not it will need more uncrewed tests.

After liftoff from Launch Complex 41 at 6:36 a.m. Friday, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket successfully delivered Starliner to the appropriate orbit. But after separation from the dual-Centaur engine second stage 15 minutes into the flight, the spacecraft's "clock" was off, leading its automated systems to believe it was in an orbital insertion burn when it actually wasn't.

The correct insertion burn should have happened about 30 minutes after launch.

"Today, a lot of things went right. This is, in fact, why we test," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Friday during a post-launch conference at Kennedy Space Center. "But we did obviously have some challenges."

Due to the timing issue, he said, Starliner believed it was at a different point in the mission, leading to its thrusters firing to maintain very precise positioning – something not necessary until much later. It quickly burned through its fuel supply, precluding any chance at an International Space Station arrival but still leaving enough to operate and hopefully land the vehicle.

Boeing Starliner orbit issue: What we know

A backup command would have helped overcome the issue, but Starliner at the time was between NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System satellites, so the command didn't get through.

Boeing said it will continue investigating what led to the timing problem in the first place.

But NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann, slated to eventually fly on Starliner, were confident that had they been on board, the mission would have proceeded as planned after taking manual control.

"We train extensively for this type of contingency," said Mann, a Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet pilot. "Had we been on board, there could have been actions that we could have taken."

Bridenstine confirmed that the manual override likely would have worked.

"To be very clear, our crew would have been safe," he said. "And in fact, had they been in there, we may be docking with the International Space Station tomorrow. A lot of things went right today."

If the orbit raising had gone according to plan, Starliner would have spent eight days at the station before targeting a landing at White Sands. While there, the existing ISS crew would have unpacked it, countless sensors would have gathered data, and its autonomous functions would have been put through their paces.

Had all those been successful, the test would have paved the way for astronauts to launch on Starliner sometime in the first half of 2020.

Bridenstine said an investigation will be needed to determine if Boeing will need to fly another uncrewed mission before proceeding with crews.

"When we had space shuttles, every single one of those missions was crewed from day one," Bridenstine said, noting that his agency has the necessary experience to decide how Boeing will proceed with its crewed testing. "The very first time we launched the space shuttle, it had people on board."

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Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com.