this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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A couple weeks ago, it seemed like they had tested the thruster system both on orbit and on the ground, and things were going well. Have they discovered a more serious issue?
After repeated firings of the thruster it started behaving similar to the ones in orbit. Disassembling the thruster they found a teflon seal in the poppet valve that feeds the nitrogen tetroxide into the thruster had deformed and actually bulged out, disrupting the flow of oxidizer.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/07/nasa-nears-decision-on-what-to-do-with-boeings-troubled-starliner-spacecraft/
I wonder how predictable the thrust reduction is. I would have thought they could account for this in software, but maybe there's too much uncertainty. Or perhaps ground tests showed the seal can fail in dangerous ways.