An Alabama built rocket is maybe days away from making space history. The Atlas-V is set to carry two astronauts and a new NASA space capsule called Starliner.
When it comes dealing with unknowns in space, Barry Wilmore has been there and back. He was the astronaut pilot aboard space shuttle Atlantis during a mission to the International Space Station in 2009. He says everything went fine, until the spacecraft was re-entering Earth’s atmosphere during the trip home…
“All of a sudden, boom, it was a huge sound,” Wilmore said. “And it was my first flight. So I looked over commander Charlie Harbaugh …right. Is that right? That right? Anyway, right? Well, we didn't know what it was.”
Wilmore and Hobaugh were both strapped in their seats in the shuttle’s cockpit. The winged spacecraft’s crew cabin has an upper floor and a lower. The sound they heard on the upper deck was coming from the lower deck…
“But turns out someone I'll take, I'll take responsibility had not strapped down the fire extinguishers that was down on the midday, and it came loose as a G came in and it slammed to the floor,” Wilmore explained. “We don't expect to hear anything like that. But if we do well, while getting we'll figure out what it is.”
Wilmore, he goes by the nickname Butch, learned a lot from that one shuttle mission. But it may not prepare him for an Atlas-V rocket. It was built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur, just south of Huntsville. Wilmore’s upcoming mission is to command the first flight of NASA’s new space capsule called the Starliner. The vehicle and the astronaut crew will be perched on top of an Alabama built Atlas-V. NASA picked this rocket to boost the Starliner with Wilmore on board. He says it’s the first time people have flown on an Atlas-V.
“It'll be different sensations,” said Wilmore.
Wilmore’s been on the space shuttle, and later a Russian built Soyuz capsule. But, he says he has no idea how his trip aboard the Atlas-V will go.
“The shuttle flight that I flew compared to the Soyuz flight were completely different. As far as the sensations, and we've talked about it before. We're looking forward to finding out what those sensations are those physical sensations, they will be different.”
The point is the space shuttle was built to carry people and the Atlas-V wasn’t. NASA picked this booster for its new Starliner capsule. United Launch Alliance then added safety features in a process called man rating. Talking about safety is one thing, but sitting on top of an Atlas-V is different if you listen to somebody on the mission.
“On the launch pad, as valves are moving, we might hear, you know, a little boom, here and there when we're priming valves and stuff like that,” said Sunita Williams. She’s Butch Wilmore's crewmate and the pilot on Starliner.
“So we'll be ready, you know, as much as we can be,” she said. “I'm sure we're going to ask the question if something sounds a little bit weird, like what was that? And we will, and somebody will answer or we will, we'll take note of it and bring that back home. So we're looking forward to it.”
And, Williams is no rookie when it comes to working in space. She flew a long duration expedition aboard the International Space Station back in 2012. In this video, she’s giving viewers on Earth a tour of the sleeping compartments on the orbiting outpost. She flew to the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Now, her next blastoff will be aboard Starliner. That included training in simulators on the ground before trying to real thing aboard the Atlas-V. Part of that training was what you might call trust but verify.
Atlas-V rockets launched satellites and unmanned space probes before the NASA Starliner. Williams says she gained confidence in the rocket by seeing a few of these launches.
“One of them happened to be a payload which was pretty expensive,” Williams recalled. “I was talking to the head of that payload and I was like, Okay, I feel pretty good about getting on this atlas five. If they're going to invest a lot of money and put that thing up in space, so I'm okay.”
Williams isn’t just thinking about what happens with her and Butch Wilmore during blastoff. This is considered a test flight and other astronauts will be watching as well. Assuming everything goes okay on the Starliner mission, space veterans Mike Fincke and Scott Tingle are in next in line. They'll be joined by Canadian rookie Joshua Kutryk. Williams says what she and Wilmore experience will be factored into how future Starliner crews are trained. That includes what happens is something goes wrong with the Atlas-V and the astronauts have to perform an abort. Williams says that could mean the capsule making an emergency splashdown in the ocean or limping into space on what’s called an abort to orbit.
“Butch (Wilmore) and I've been training on this spacecraft for quite some time. So we sort of know already, we memorized a lot of it already, but maybe for future crews. So you don't have to have that extensive training, a couple improvements for situational awareness on the on the (control panel) display, so understand exactly where the aboard is, and what they should be expecting,” said Williams. “You know, we have a general idea of it with some verbiage, but having those indexes on board really cues off some key things to think about during the abort.”
How all of that will go will depend on what happens on the launch pad, and that could happen as soon as this Monday. Butch Wilmore keeps on going back to the historic nature of riding an Atlas-V. He says nothing like it has happened since astronauts rode Atlas and Titan rockets during Project Mercury and Gemini that led to astronauts walking on the moon.
“What a great heritage, the Atlas and goodness, we're the first individuals since Gemini to launch on an ELV (expendable launch vehicle) that has now been human rated (with safety features added,) said Wilmore. “And that's a great opportunity there as well. Because you got to go, like I said, all way back to (NASA two-man capsule) Gemini, if it's in someone that's launched on the ELV, like, we're going to have the opportunity.
The Alabama built Atlas-V rocket, with Starliner on board, is poised for liftoff at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
