Starliner gets potential mission duration increase for Crew Flight Test

[Chris Bergin]

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/04/starliner-potential-mission-duration-increase-crew-test/ …
- By Chris Gebhardt

(Renders by Nathan Koga for NSF/L2)

[Rocket Science]

Great update of the progress being made and potential increase in mission duration. Thank you for the article and renders gentlemen. Feels like momentum is building!

[Coastal Ron]

From the article:

...NASA has updated its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with Boeing to allow for the possibility of the CFT mission adding an additional crew member and extending the flight from 14 days to six months.

Great job Boeing and NASA! The Commercial Crew contract has been a challenge, and as everyone gets closer to (hopefully) operational status there comes a dangerous period of too much or not enough crew transportation coverage, so having the flexibility to extend a test is a good idea. And I would think there isn't as much risk as other completely new transportation systems would have.

Rumor has it that SpaceX has not yet asked for the same capability, which even if they do this was still a good job by Boeing to make the most of their test program.

And the bottom line is that we want the ISS to stay busy doing the important science work needed to help expand humanity out into space, which Boeing and SpaceX are working hard to support.

[Comga]

Another good, fact filled, timely article but....

Great job Boeing and NASA!

"Great job"?  Really?

Alternate thread title: "NASA, behind on reviews, cancels CFT, pulls one from Boeing CCTV-1 crew"

What is the practical difference between that and what has been reported?

"As part of the continued slippage of the first flights of both Starliner and crew Dragon, and an impending deadline in mid-2019 after which NASA has no purchased crew seats aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket and crew capsule, NASA has updated its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with Boeing to allow for the possibility of the CFT mission adding an additional crew member and extending the flight from 14 days to six months.

“Turning a test flight into more of an operational mission needs careful review by the technical community,” said Mr. Gerstenmaier.

And for the record, 1 mile is not 1.2 km.  It's not even 1.6 km.  It's 2 km.  Anything more is false precision.
[/rant]

[woods170]

The Commercial Crew contract has been a challenge, and as everyone gets closer to (hopefully) operational status there comes a dangerous period of too much or not enough crew transportation coverage, so having the flexibility to extend a test is a good idea. And I would think there isn't as much risk as other completely new transportation systems would have.

Rumor has it that SpaceX has not yet asked for the same capability, which even if they do this was still a good job by Boeing to make the most of their test program.

Wrong interpretation. Boeing knows even better than SpaceX that NASA is in dire straits with regards to continued access to the ISS. Remember the extra Soyuz seats NASA gained access to? Courtesy of Boeing having secured those seats for NASA.
Now that NASA bureaucracy can't keep up with a tidal-wave of certification paper-work coming from the CCP contractors (as has been pointed out by ASAP repeatedly) the manned missions keep being pushed to the right.
NASA is getting a little desperate. Desperate enough in fact that they are actually seriously considering extending Starliner's CFT into a fully operational mission. IMO, had there been no looming interruption of manned access to the ISS than NASA never would have agreed with extending the CFT into a fully operation flight.

IMO, next we will see is a waiver to fly Crew Dragon Demo-2 without all VCN's having been processed.

[clongton]

IMO, next we will see is a waiver to fly Crew Dragon Demo-2 without all VCN's having been processed.

Agreed

[deruch]

IMO, next we will see is a waiver to fly Crew Dragon Demo-2 without all VCN's having been processed.

One more thing added to the mix:  https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=44955.msg1810283#msg1810283

One important thing that Lightfoot mentioned [in testimony on FY2019 budget to the House Appropriations Committee] at 1h28 and 1h46 of the Hearing [video in linked thread] above is that NASA is considering spacing out some of the upcoming purchased Soyuz flights (which would mean extended stays for the astronauts) in order to make sure that there is no gap between the remaining purchased Soyuz seats and commercial crew.

[Archibald]

It would be a gap inside another gap - a Soyuz gap into the U.S manned gap ! 

[PM3]

Question in todays SpX-DM1 FRR press conference:

When do you think that you will need to decide about whether to turn the Boeing crew flight test into an extended ISS stay?

Answer by William Gerstenmaier:

We will probably decide ... you know .. first we will do the uncrewed flight with Boeing and then we have an pad abort test with Boeing and then we'd come up with the flight, so it will be towards the end of this year, probably, as when we will decide if we wanna make the crewed test more of a mission kind of duration."

So they expect to decide about the duration of Boe-CFT towards the end of 2019. Given all the planning that depends on the mission length and day of return, I think this is a confirmation that Boe-CFT slips into 2020.