Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA

NASA has requested SPACEX to carry out a month-long “Special Study for Emergency Response,” a contract valued at $266,678.00. The work request was signed on July 15 and the work is to be completed by August 15. This action was signed by a procurement officer at Kennedy Space Center.

There has been speculation that the SpaceX requested study is related to the Boeing Starliner woes and return of crew members Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth via the technically challenged Starliner.

Contingency event

However, in response to an Inside Outer Space inquiry, this statement:

“NASA continuously explores a wide range of contingency options with our partners to ensure crew safety aboard the International Space Station. Over the past couple of years, the agency has worked with its commercial partner SpaceX to provide additional return capability on the Dragon spacecraft in the event of a contingency. This is not related to Starliner.”

NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Image credit: NASA

Hot firings at White Sands

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Starliner thruster ground testing has been completed and data reviews are underway.

In a Boeing statement, ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico is complete, and teams are now turning their attention to data reviews.

“The test objective was to observe thruster degradation so teams could get a better understanding of why some thrusters were deselected in-flight and what, if any impacts, returning those thrusters to service could have on the remainder of the Crew Flight Test (CFT).”

Readiness reviews

According to Dan Niedermaier, the lead Boeing engineer for the thruster testing: “We decided to run additional profiles with longer and more frequent pulses to see if we could more closely simulate the higher thermal conditions the thrusters experienced in-flight.”

The team was able to replicate the thrust degradation on the ground, the Boeing update added.

“Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and move forward with finalizing flight rationale in support of readiness reviews for Starliner’s nominal return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks,” according to the update from Boeing.