‘Rosie the Rocketeer’ dummy buckles up for Boeing’s 2nd Starliner launch test
Despite the fact that the next flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule will not have any astronauts, it will ferry 1 passenger to and from the Global Place Station.
That passenger is an anthropomorphic examination device, far more colloquially recognised as a flight dummy, dubbed Rosie the Rocketeer. “Rosie the Rocketeer is buckled in for the impending Starliner start!” officials wrote on NASA’s Industrial Crew System Twitter on Wednesday (June 23).
That start, atop a United Start Alliance Atlas V rocket, is scheduled for 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT) on July 30 from Space Launch Advanced 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Power Station in Florida. The flight, dubbed the Orbital Flight Exam 2 (OFT-2) mission, is scheduled to spend concerning five and 10 days in orbit, then land in the western United States.
Related: Boeing’s 1st Starliner flight examination in shots
The dummy also flew on Boeing’s prior uncrewed Starliner mission in December 2019, which skilled software package difficulties and unsuccessful to get to the space station as planned. Eighteen months later on, the tests unit is obtaining a 2nd prospect at telling engineers what a Starliner flight is like.
Through the earlier shortened flight, Rosie was outfitted with 15 sensors that gathered knowledge about the dummy’s flight encounter. This time, the sensors will aim on the spacecraft itself in its place, in accordance to a Boeing assertion, particularly the seat infrastructure that will hold the astronauts.
“Although Rosie offered us critical insight into how substantially pressure her (sic) body expert in the commander seat in the course of the initial OFT mission, these new sensors will seize info to characterize the motion of all four crew seats,” Dan Niedermaier, crew module chief engineer at Boeing, mentioned in the assertion. “Normally, all seat locations behave likewise on the other hand, there are modest distinctions that our engineers want to validate to make sure absolutely everyone receives a awesome, fulfilling ride.”
The flight dummy, which weighs 180 lbs. (82 kilograms), will also enable stabilize the vehicle’s centre of gravity all through the flight, according to Boeing.
As on the dummy’s very first flight, Rosie will be bedecked in a pink and white polka dot scarf to honor its namesake, World War II’s iconic Rosie the Riveter. But on this flight, the dummy will also sport a matching cloth mask in a nod to the coronavirus pandemic that burst on to the earth scene shortly right after Starliner’s very first flight. The mask was sewn by Mae Krier, who throughout Entire world War II constructed planes at a Boeing factory in Seattle, according to the company.
And even though Rosie the Rocketeer serves a complex function, the Boeing team see the dummy as a little something additional significant as effectively, Melanie Weber, the subsystem guide for Crew and Cargo Accommodations on the Professional Crew Application, reported in the Boeing assertion.
“We are all energized to see Rosie in the Starliner once again, mainly because she symbolizes our even bigger goal of safely and reliably transporting astronauts to and from the Worldwide Room Station,” Weber stated.
E-mail Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Adhere to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Despite the fact that the next flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule will not have any astronauts, it will ferry 1 passenger to and from the Global Place Station.
That passenger is an anthropomorphic examination device, far more colloquially recognised as a flight dummy, dubbed Rosie the Rocketeer. “Rosie the Rocketeer is buckled in for the impending Starliner start!” officials wrote on NASA’s Industrial Crew System Twitter on Wednesday (June 23).
That start, atop a United Start Alliance Atlas V rocket, is scheduled for 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT) on July 30 from Space Launch Advanced 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Power Station in Florida. The flight, dubbed the Orbital Flight Exam 2 (OFT-2) mission, is scheduled to spend concerning five and 10 days in orbit, then land in the western United States.
Related: Boeing’s 1st Starliner flight examination in shots
The dummy also flew on Boeing’s prior uncrewed Starliner mission in December 2019, which skilled software package difficulties and unsuccessful to get to the space station as planned. Eighteen months later on, the tests unit is obtaining a 2nd prospect at telling engineers what a Starliner flight is like.
Through the earlier shortened flight, Rosie was outfitted with 15 sensors that gathered knowledge about the dummy’s flight encounter. This time, the sensors will aim on the spacecraft itself in its place, in accordance to a Boeing assertion, particularly the seat infrastructure that will hold the astronauts.
“Although Rosie offered us critical insight into how substantially pressure her (sic) body expert in the commander seat in the course of the initial OFT mission, these new sensors will seize info to characterize the motion of all four crew seats,” Dan Niedermaier, crew module chief engineer at Boeing, mentioned in the assertion. “Normally, all seat locations behave likewise on the other hand, there are modest distinctions that our engineers want to validate to make sure absolutely everyone receives a awesome, fulfilling ride.”
The flight dummy, which weighs 180 lbs. (82 kilograms), will also enable stabilize the vehicle’s centre of gravity all through the flight, according to Boeing.
As on the dummy’s very first flight, Rosie will be bedecked in a pink and white polka dot scarf to honor its namesake, World War II’s iconic Rosie the Riveter. But on this flight, the dummy will also sport a matching cloth mask in a nod to the coronavirus pandemic that burst on to the earth scene shortly right after Starliner’s very first flight. The mask was sewn by Mae Krier, who throughout Entire world War II constructed planes at a Boeing factory in Seattle, according to the company.
And even though Rosie the Rocketeer serves a complex function, the Boeing team see the dummy as a little something additional significant as effectively, Melanie Weber, the subsystem guide for Crew and Cargo Accommodations on the Professional Crew Application, reported in the Boeing assertion.
“We are all energized to see Rosie in the Starliner once again, mainly because she symbolizes our even bigger goal of safely and reliably transporting astronauts to and from the Worldwide Room Station,” Weber stated.
E-mail Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Adhere to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.