Starliner OFT (CST-100 F1, Boe-OFT)

US (Boeing)

OFT= Orbital Flight Test

Launch, orbit & landing data:

Designation	44900 / 19094A
Launch date - time	20 Dec 2019 - 11:36 UTC
Launch site	CC, SLC-41
Launch vehicle	Atlas V/N22 (AV-080)
Mass (kg)	kg
Docking date - time	No docking
Earth orbit:
- Perigee / Apogee	180 x 221 km
- Inclination	51.6°
- Period	min
Landing date - time	22 Dec 2019 - 12:57:55 UTC
Landing location	about 106.420W 32.952N at White Sands Space Harbor
Flight Duration:	2d, 1h, 22m, 10s
Nbr orbits

The Orbital Flight Test Starliner getting ready for propellant loading ahead of rollout to the Atlas-V launch site for its upcoming Orbital Flight Test. Photo: Boeing.

Spacecraft data:

Crew capacity	7
Manufacturer	Boeing / USA
Operator	NASA
Applications	Manned spacecraft
Dimensions	Diameter (CM): 4.56 m (15.0 ft) Length (CM+SM): 5.03 m (16.5 ft
Volume	11 m3 (390 cu ft)
Launch Mass	~13,000 kg (29,000 lb)
Total cargo mass (kg)	kg
Equipment	NDS docking adaptor
Configuration	Conical capsule, cylindrical service module
Propulsion	4 × RS-88 combined abort/retro rocket engines, 24 × OMAC thrusters
Power	Solar cells, batteries
Lifetime	60 hours (freeflight); 210 days (docked)
Status	Test fligts

Description:

The Starliner, formerly known as CST-100 (Crew Space Transportation 100), is a space capsule privately developed by Boeing to carry up to seven people to and from low earth orbit to carry crews to the ISS and the planned Bigelow Aerospace Orbital Space Complex.

Starliner consists of the following components, with very approximate guesstimated masses (Height, Dia, Mass):

  Crew Module     2.2m    4.5m  8.3t?        - about 6.4t dry without crew/cargo
  Service Module  2.5m    4.5m  3.3t? (dry)  - Jettisoned during end of mission, after deorbit burn
  SM propellant   -       -     2.3t?
  -----------------------------------
 Total at Cen sep              13.9t?
  Ascent cover    0.3m    1.7m  0.1t?        - Jettisoned suborbital, before Centaur ignition
  Aeroskirt       1.8m    4.5m  1.0t?        - Jettisoned suborbital, 20s after Centaur ignition
  -----------------------------------
 Total at launch               15.0t?

The SM has 20 6kN OMAC thrusters for orbit adjust (plus 4 x 180 kN abort engines and 28 RCS thrusters).
The CM includes a 750 kg base heat shield, a 150 kg forward heat shield, and two 34 kg drogue chutes, as well as about 90 kg of hydrazine, all of which are jettisoned in the atmosphere prior to landing.
Landing mass is about 7200 kg including crew and cargo. Starliner is built in Boeing′s facility at the C3PF (former OPF3) at Kennedy Space Center; spacecraft development is carried out there (and possibly at the new Boeing Space headquarters in Titusville) and mission control is at a Boeing control room in the mission control building at NASA-JSC/Houston.

Starliner rolls out of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Credit: NASA/Cory Huston

Mission Report:

On Dec 20, 2019 ULA launched flight AV-080, the first Atlas V/N22, from Cape Canaveral. The N22 has two solid boosters, a dual engine Centaur with two RL10-A4-1 engines (the first DEC to fly since 2004) and carries the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spaceship, flying on its Orbital Flight Test (OFT) without a crew. The mission was to test launch and landing and to rendezvous and dock with ISS, delivering 272 kg of cargo and carrying an instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy (ATD) dubbed 'Rosie'.

Rosie "the Rocketeer" dummy
AV-080′s Centaur reached its targeted 73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
Boeing Space′s Starliner, vehicle SC3, separated at 1150 UTC. Starliner set its master event timer reading data from the launch vehicle, but apparently because of a software (interface) mistake the value was read into the Boeing vehicle from an incorrect location in the ULA vehicle′s memory, resulting in an 11 hour offset. Starliner was meant to fire its Aerojet Rocketdyne OMAC thrusters at 1207 UTC to raise its orbit, but due to the software timing error this did not occur. After comms problems possibly related to a TDRS handover, a contingency RCS burn was finally commanded by the ground, possibly at around 1216 UTC, which raised perigee by an unknown amount. Further RCS burns at unknown times over the next half hour or so raised perigee further and placed Starliner in a 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
During the period before the burn, the timer error meant that Starliner was in an incorrect software state and used up too much propellant controlling its attitude. This precluded the planned rendezvous with ISS. Later on Dec 20 Starliner raised its orbit to around 250 km and tested extension and retraction of its docking apparatus as well as other systems tests.
SC3 then returned on Dec 22, landing at about 106.420W 32.952N near the runway at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico.
Partial failure due to two critical software defects. Rendezvous with ISS cancelled.

SC3 cabine on parachutes - Photo´s credit: NASA

Starliner capsule rests on the ground after a test
The flight did demonstrate the basic design of the vehicle including its life support system and its ability to safely return to Earth; and the missed rendezvous or the software issues to create major delays to the programme or to require a further uncrewed test flight.
Approximate timeline of the mission:
Dec 20:
- 1136:43 Launch by Atlas V/N22 from SLC41
- 1141:12 Atlas cutoff
- 1141:18 Atlas separation
- 1141:24 Starliner ascent cover jettisoned
- 1141:28 Centaur AV-080 main engine burn 1
- 1141:48 Starliner aeroskirt jettisoned
- 1148:37 AV-080 shutdown, reach 73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg orbit
- 1151:37 Starliner separates from AV-080
- 1202: AV-080 propellant `blowdown'
- 1207:38 Planned Starliner OMAC orbit insertion burn does not occur. Excessive attitude control thruster use
- 1215? Commanded RCS burn performs initial orbit insertion. Initial orbit UNKNOWN; burn start time UNKNOWN
- 1234 AV-080 Centaur reentered and hits ocean SW of Australia
- 1300? Further RCS burn(s); reach 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg orbt. Burn start time UNKNOWN.
- 2200? OMAC burn 1, 20 m/s?, to approx 214 x 242 km x 51.6 deg orbit
- 2235? OMAC burn 2, 20 m/s?, to 241 x 265 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
Dec 22:
- 1223:47 Starliner OMAC deorbit, 150 m/s , 55 s burn; E of New Zealand
- 1224:42 Deorbit burn cutoff, orbit about -230 x 246 x 51.6
- 1225:59 Service Module jettison
- 1241:42 Entry interface, 120 km, 7.5 km/s over equatorial Pacific
- 1242? Service Module destructive reentry over equatorial Pacific
- 1253? Forward heat shield (FHS) separation at 3 km alt.
- 1253:06 Main parachutes deploy
- 1254:00? Base Heat Shield sep
- 1254:40? Airbags inflate
- 1257 Base Heat Shield impact
- 1257:55 CM landing at White Sands Space Harbor 106.420W 32.952N
- 1302:48 Forward heat shield touchdown
Starliner SC1 was used for the pad abort test; SC2 will fly the CFT crewed flight next year; then SC3 will fly again on the PCM-1 mission to ISS. For that flight SC3 will have the name `Calypso', chosen by mission commander Suni Williams. SC2 has not yet been named.