NASA and @BoeingSpace are about update media the #Starliner Pad Abort Test from Monday. Stand by for updates....
@BoeingSpace Boeing says harshest critics are the crew. All CFT crew were there. They all said "great" and "successful test." #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Spacecraft performance was "outstanding." Trajectory was right on the money. Abort engine burn was nominal. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Parachute issue identified conclusively. Lack of secure connection between pilot chute and main chute lanyard. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Pilot chute deployed, but lack of good connection meant it failed to pull the main chute out. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Team identified chute issue through close-out photos and verified it via post-test hardware inspection. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Boeing says this isn't a parachute failure. Test under two chutes validate "significant beyond design requirements and robustness of our design." They say they have 100% parachute test success. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Reliability drop tests also performed. 3 complete. 1 of those was a 20% over Q test -- allows module to attain higher speed than it would normally. Tests chutes at 20% greater strain. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace NASA's Kathy Lueders now. "So much went well Monday. This was a robust test of what the vehicle could do if we ever had an issue on the pad." #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace NASA: "Huge benefit to us." This lesson will be taken forward to OFT and CFT. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace In Q&A.... standby.
@BoeingSpace Boeing: Chutes complicated. Seem simply. Confidence in parachutes are largely generated by test.
NASA: Chutes are a work of art. #Starliner #NASA
NASA: Chutes are a work of art. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace NASA: Boeing chute testing "has been very successful." Making sure we're testing the stressing conditions. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Boeing: Capability to see the two chutes handling 30% greater load due to Service Module was incredibly important - even though that wasn't the plan. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace For OFT, Boeing has already verified that that capsule's chutes DO NOT suffer the same issue the chute that didn't deploy on Pad Abort had. No impact to OFT on 17 Dec. But reviews will continue to Flight Readiness Review. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Kathy: "You always test because you always learn. In Shuttle, we learned to the last day. We learned from this. We'll learn from OFT before we head to CFT." #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Boeing: Linkage is pin in loop between pilot and main chute that is then enclosed in a sheath. Difficult to verify visually that it's secured properly once in sheath. In this case, pin wasn't put fully through loop & wasn't caught before it was put in sheath. #Starliner #NASA
We are adding steps - quality control steps - to make sure this never happens again so we can verify and triple check connections going forward. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Whoops. Nope. Another question was taken....
@BoeingSpace All test data (including test dummy that was onboard) will be fed into OFT Flight Readiness Review. #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace Guidance/Navigation system was validated. Flight profile was exactly as modeled -- and feeds into confidence in the models for In Flight Abort scenarios (since Boeing isn't doing an In Flight Abort test) #Starliner #NASA
@BoeingSpace And now that's really it. Presser over.
