Manual piloting demo went well
Crew tests unique Starliner manual piloting capability on orbit.
On the way to the International Space Station, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams tested out a unique capability of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on orbit – manual piloting. Although the spacecraft is usually autonomous, the crew used the hand controller to point and aim the spacecraft during about two hours of free-flight demonstrations.
“We’ve also spun out the manual maneuvering and it is precise, much more so than even the simulator,” said Wilmore, CFT commander. “Stopping exactly on a number you want to stop on, the precision is pretty amazing.”
During a far-field demo, they pointed Starliner’s nose toward the Earth so that its communications antenna on the on the back of the Service Module was pointed at the TDRS satellites. They then moved the Starliner so its solar array pointed at the sun to show they could charge the internal batteries, if ever needed.
Next, they swung Starliner around and pointed the nose away from Earth to look at the stars. This was to show they can manually use the star trackers in the VESTA system to establish their attitude in space in case all three flight computers were to ever go out or be turned off at the same time.
Then, they manually sped Starliner up and then slowed it down, which slightly raised and then lowered their orbit. This was to show that the crew could manually break away from the space station orbit during rendezvous, if necessary.
Finally, the crew manually pointed Starliner in the orientation needed for entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, just in case they have to do that manually. During that maneuver, they again pointed the solar array at the sun to try a different method of confirming they can manually charge the batteries.
There is more manual piloting to come for this “pilot’s spacecraft” with Wilmore and Williams on docking day, June 6.