NASA Engineers Were Disturbed by What Happened When They Tested Starliner's Thrusters

Quick Summary:

Later this week, Boeing's plagued Starliner is set to attempt its return journey from the International Space Station.

But instead of ferrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to the ground, it'll be undocking and reentering without any crew on board.

A Teflon seal in a valve known as a "poppet" expanded as it was being heated by the nearby thrusters, significantly constraining the flow of the oxidizer — a disturbing finding, because it greatly degraded the thrusters' performance.

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Article Details

Author / Journalist: Victor Tangermann

Category: Technology

Markets: United StatesMexico

Topics: Starliner NASA Boeing Future Society International space station

Source Website Secure: Yes (HTTPS)

News Sentiment: Neutral

Fact Checked: Legitimate

Article Type: News Report

Published On: 2024-09-04 @ 16:24:37 (11 hours ago)

News Timezone: GMT +8:00

News Source URL: futurism.com

Language: English

Article Length: 706 words

Reading Time: 4 minutes read

Sentences: 26 lines

Sentence Length: 28 words per sentence (average)

Platforms: Desktop Web, Mobile Web, iOS App, Android App

Copyright Owner: © Futurism

News ID: 22368787

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