More Starliner Thruster Problems

[glend (Glen)]

So the Boeing Starliner capsule had a couple of more thruster issues during its insertion burn to climb to ISS. NASA went ahead an allowed it to dock with ISS anyway.
It had already been decided , before the test mission, that the thruster valves would have to be redesigned. Apparently there is a corrosion issue, but they will never be able to examine today's faulty valves, as the thrusters are on the service collar that is discarded (To burn up in the atmo), when the capsule reentry starts.
Why is this such a concern? Because the thrusters provide ISS with maneuvering thrust when docked, in other words they need to work if the ISS has to move to avoid space junk. Both the Russion capsules and the SpaceX Dragon capsule do this without issue.

[mura_gadi (Steve)]

A few problems from what I heard and saw yesterday.

one of two alignment aerial for the visual dock was intermittent or not working as described.

the comms checks needed to be repeated a few times, as the crew failed to acknowledge step completions more than once. (not a good sign of a trained crew doing it easy...)

Lots of additional delays in the docking tests sequence for double checks after the first check caused concerns.

I think about 4.7k people watching when it finally engaged the first locks. Being two years late and running second hurts a bit in the rating game it seems.

[DarkArts]

Not to worry ... it'll all be better with StarlinerMAX.