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Orbital Flight Test 2

Season 1Episode 244May 13, 2022

Amy Comeau details the second uncrewed flight test of the Boeing Starliner crew spacecraft. HWHAP Episode 244.

Houston We Have a Podcast Ep. 244 Orbital Flight Test 2

Houston We Have a Podcast Ep. 244 Orbital Flight Test 2

From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.

On Episode 244, Amy Comeau details the second uncrewed flight test of the Boeing Starliner crew spacecraft. This episode was recorded on May 6, 2022.

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Transcript

Gary Jordan (Host): Houston, we have a podcast! Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 244, “Orbital Flight Test 2.” I’m Gary Jordan and I’ll be your host today. On this podcast we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human spaceflight. NASA and Boeing are about to launch the second uncrewed flight test called Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT-2 of the Boeing Starliner, a spacecraft that will soon be transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Having multiple spacecraft that have this capability is a critical objective laid out under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. And this uncrewed flight test will demonstrate the Starliner as another capable vehicle for doing so, alongside the SpaceX Dragon. It’s been a long road to get to this point. OFT-2 was attempted at August 2021, but due to issues with the oxidizer isolation valves, the vehicle was rolled back for investigation. After months of testing and verification, teams are ready for launch. To walk us through the road to get to this point and to share what to expect for the flight ahead, we’re chatting with Amy Comeau, project engineer for Boeing Starliner chief engineer’s office. So, Go Starliner, and let’s get right into it. Enjoy.

[Music]

Host: Amy Comeau, thanks so much for coming on Houston We Have a Podcast.

Amy Comeau: Thanks for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

Host: Hey, we’re recording this very close to the launch of Orbital Flight Test 2: how are you feeling at this time? It’s, it’s, it’s coming up.

Amy Comeau: Yeah, we’re, we’re less than two weeks away, if you can believe it. I, I think if I had to sum it up in one word, “energized” is probably accurate. You know, we’re stacked on top of our ride to space out in the Vertical Integration Facility, the team’s abuzz with all of our final launch preparations and, you know, there’s a lot of hard work that has gotten to us to where we are today. And now really, there’s only a few more milestones to pass through heading into a new May 19th launch.

Host: And, you know, you, you’ve did a lot of work to get to that point. But I wanted to start a little bit with, with you and your role. You’re the project engineer for the chief engineer’s office, and, and, you know, what we’ll get into is some of the critical roles that you’ve had with Starliner, but, but give us a feel for what led you to this role?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, so I actually joined Boeing fresh out of college after graduating from Purdue University — Boiler Up.

Host: Oh, cool.

Amy Comeau: I got my bachelor’s in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. And my first job was in the satellite systems rotation program, which was based out of El Segundo. And I actually got to work in the Boeing test and evaluation group where we were responsible for setting up and doing functional checkouts of the satellites in the factory. So that was a really cool experience, you know, to get right out of school, touching hardware, you know, being so close to stuff that was eventually going to launch a space and spend 15-plus years functioning in space. And then, you know, funny enough, my second rotation actually started on Starliner. That was about three and a half years ago. And, you know, I loved the rotation too much to leave so, I joined Starliner full time and, you know, I’ve had the joy of working a number of projects and a number of different roles throughout my time so far.

Host: Well, Starliner is, is a fascinating spacecraft. It’s, it’s one of the spacecrafts that, that we’re working on as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This is, this is the Boeing spacecraft. So let, let’s dive into that, so we can have, better understand the mission by starting with the spacecraft. So give us a feel, what is Starliner?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, so, the Starliner spacecraft, like you said, is a Boeing-built capsule that’s designed to deliver astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. And, you know, the unique aspect about Starliner is that it’s the first American-made orbital capsule to land back on land. So we, we do have a landing system on board that of course consists of parachutes to come home safely, but we actually also have a landing airbag system so that the astronauts that are along for the ride have this nice, pillowy-soft landing when they come back down in the desert. And really the spacecraft is kind of composed of three major components. There’s the service module, which is, you know, it houses the majority of our power and propulsion; the crew module, which is of course where the astronauts ride and it has all of our necessary environmental controls and our life support systems to make sure that they can live and work in space; and then we have an umbilical system that actually connects the crew module to the service module, and that allows some of our cooling loops and communication systems to pass between the two.

Host: OK. So, so, you know, there’s a lot of components to make a spacecraft run, and of course, the, the main topic of, of today’s episode is a specific test called Orbital Flight Test 2. But, but to help us get to that, let me ask, just, you know, so far — when it comes to all of those different components, what sorts of tests have you done on the ground to verify the different systems that, you know, really helped to lead up to the, you know, what I call the ultimate test of the spacecraft, which is, you know, a flight of, of all of the systems together on Orbital Flight Test 2, but what source of tests have you done so far for, for Starliner?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, that’s a great question, and to be honest it’s a very lengthy answer, right? But this system has been put through, put through its paces on the ground. You know, we do component-level testing to make sure that, you know, no matter where it’s installed in the spacecraft that it’ll survive the harsh launch environments and re-entry environments. We’ve done some testing on what is called our structural test article, where we actually demonstrated our ability to fire ordnance and jettison aspects of the spacecraft, so, you know, during flight that that would go smoothly. We’ve also conducted a pad abort test where the vehicle was shipped out to the desert and essentially put through a launch abort, which is arguably one of our harshest environments that the spacecraft could possibly see. And basically, we were able to show that the spacecraft can very quickly and safely pull astronauts away from the rocket if something were to go wrong at the pad, in short order, and land back safely and we can go retrieve the astronauts. The next step in this test process, really, is our orbital flight test. And it’s critical because here we’re going to demonstrate our spacecraft’s ability to function safely and successfully before we put humans on board. You know, the Commercial Crew Program was structured differently than some of the human spaceflight programs that came before it, you know, shuttle and Apollo, Mercury, etc., and, and I really think that was purposeful, right? Previously, these really complex systems, on their first flight, they had to have humans in the loop, and really, simply put, it’s just that the technology to operate and navigate these spacecraft autonomously just was nowhere near the level that we’re at today. So, I mean, by necessity, these programs had to take a slightly higher risk by putting people on board for these first flights. And, you know, I’m sure many folks in the industry will say that, unfortunately, the human spaceflight business can be very unforgiving. And those that worked through the Apollo 1 disaster and Challenger and Columbia accidents they can, of course, personally attest to this. There’s risks with these types of programs. And now, you know, it’s really cool that we have this amazing technology that’s baked into Starliner’s design that we can actually fully test out our ability to launch, rendezvous, dock, undock, land, all autonomously, before we put humans on board.

Host: Is that, if you had, if you had to summarize this flight test, Orbital Flight Test 2 in a nutshell, is that really what your, what your, what the plan is? Is to, to launch this thing, have it, have it do a full mission to and from the International Space Station but really running off of the software and the, and the automatic components that get, that go through all of those steps. That’s real, is that really boiling it down to that’s, that’s pretty much Orbital Flight Test 2?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, exactly. I mean, as an engineer, it’s, it’s, it’s an engineer’s dream to get, you know, as real test data as you could possibly get, and putting the system through the exact environment that, you know, ultimately we’ll be seeing in our, post-certification missions. It, it’s, it’s the best thing that we could possibly do.

Host: So then let’s go through it. Let’s, let’s talk about Orbital Flight Test 2. What, so, so we’re two weeks from, from launch, you said less than two weeks at this point, and we’re going to post this, we’re going to post this like one week from launch is, is our, is our goal here; what is left to do to get ready for launch? What’s some of the, what’s some of the steps we have left until we’re there?

Amy Comeau: Yeah. So, basically, we made our ride over to the vertical, Vertical Integration Facility, which is where we, Starliner, gets stacked on top of the Atlas V rocket. In that facility we get integrated with the rocket and do some functional checkouts, make sure Starliner is talking to the rocket, the rocket’s talking to Starliner, and then, you know, we’ll go through some last-minute closeouts and in, inspections for making sure our, the inside of our spacecraft is pristine, and all of our cargos formally installed. And then we’ll, we’ll head into launch day. So during our launch countdown there’s an amazingly integrated team that walks through and probes the health of our spacecraft, making sure that everything’s functioning properly and we’ve got, you know, a go to proceed with launch. So then once we lift off, we’ll go through our ascent profile, and ascent is probably one of our most dynamic aspects of flight. It’s, we really fly through a bunch of major milestones that happen just in the first 30 minutes of our flight. So the Atlas rocket punches through our maximum aerodynamic pressure, which is where the loads on the rocket are the highest; we’ll burn through our solid rocket boosters and jettison them away; we’ll finish firing the, the first stage of the Atlas V and jettison the entire first stage; we’ll kickstart the upper stage, which is also known as the Centaur, and Centaur’s responsibility is basically to drop us off so that Starliner can disconnect from the rocket and complete our orbital insertion burn. And that essentially kickstarts our journey to the ISS. And, you know, the main focus of OFT-2 is centered on demonstrating our ability to autonomously dock with the International Space Station. So there’s two systems really that are, we’re going to be looking very closely at and, and, are excited to see, you know, fully function. That’s our VESTA (Vision-based, Electro-Optical Sensor Tracking Assembly) system and our NASA docking system.

Host: And so, what are those?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, so the VESTA system is basically an onboard camera suite that is designed to see the International Space Station kind of the way a person does. The system uses visual cues on space station, you know, such as the solar panels, stickers, the modules, etc., and it also uses star tracker information so that it can interpret, real time, the precise location of Starliner’s position relative to the International Space Station’s position. And so then this information is actually fed into our flight computers, that ultimately drive the spacecraft into the appropriate docking port. And I guess, you know, for those that are listening, if you think about yourself driving a car and pulling into a garage, there’s actually, there’s a lot of real-time information that your brain is processing and, and trying to interpret and making decisions in order to when to pull in, right? You know, you want to pull in after your mailbox and stop when you touch the tennis ball that’s hanging from your ceiling; that’s kind of what the VESTA system does. And then if you can imagine the car itself is actually Starliner driving into that docking port. So, you know, the NASA docking system will be the star of the show. Once we get in nice and close to space station, this system allows us to essentially become another temporary pressurized vessel once we dock. So this system extends past the nose of Starliner, and our VESTA system precisely aligns us up to the docking port so that when the system kind of touches the ISS, we’re very precisely aligned. And the NASA docking system, actually, pulls us into space station and latches us in so that we have electrical connections from Starliner to the ISS and we’re getting power, and we, again, create that seal so that we’re just another pressure vessel that’s attached.

Host: Now, both of these systems, I’m sure, have been tested time and time again on the ground, but really what’s the benefit? Well, I think, I think I know the answer to this: the benefit of doing it in, in orbit is that this is the real thing. And, and like you said, that when you, when you’re testing, you can test it on the ground as much as you want but you don’t truly know until you actually run through it as part of an actual flight. And so that’s, that’s really what you’re verifying is, is we, we have a pretty good understanding that, that, that we’ve done the proper testing and that these systems are going to work, but will they actually work – that, and that’s, that’s really where you’re at.

Amy Comeau: Yeah. And really, there’s like a lot of different variables that we have to consider when, when designing these types of systems. You have to make sure that these systems can function in very low temperatures and very high temperatures; you have to make sure that it can function in zero gravity, which we don’t necessarily have the luxury of testing extensively on the ground; you know, we have to make sure that the systems, mechanically, are mechanically and materially are going to be compatible and, and not degrade on orbit. So, like you said, there’s really no better testbed to, than doing this, you know, for real, as we go into space station.

Host: I think one of the benefits of doing a, a mission like this is you, you not only get to test the systems in, in sort of a best-case scenario, I’ll say, which is like a flawless launch to docking, but you have an opportunity to perform some, some extra demonstrations and test objectives all along the way. I’m, I’m guessing that the OFT-2 has a couple of those extra test objectives to, to really push the limits of the Starliner systems. Will we be seeing some of those on the ride up?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as we’re making our approach to the International Space Station, you know, a, another aspect that we want to demonstrate and prove that our, our spacecraft can, can safely operate in is we want to make sure that we’ve got complete control during that approach. So, there’s various demonstrations that cover making sure our camera systems are able to actually precisely locate ourselves in space, and we do understand where we’re located and how far away, we are from space station. There’s also checkpoints along the way as we approach space station, that we have formal gates, essentially, that Starliner would not be able to proceed unless we get the OK from the ground, from our mission control center. And so, essentially, we’re going to force Starliner to try and go through that gate without having us given the OK. And what’s going to happen is Starliner is essentially going to bump this invisible sphere, and it’s going to retreat and back out and say, hey, you haven’t given me the go yet; I’m going to wait until you, you say it’s OK to proceed. Again, which is really important in demonstrating that Starliner is in complete control and we would have, we would pose no risk to the International Space Station.

Host: All good stuff, absolutely. Now, now I think, you know, you, you talk about the, the ground teams, right? The ground teams have to be prepared for, have to have the commands and they’re fully integrate, integrated into the loop to actually execute the mission. I’m sure this is not their first run either, and the flight operations teams have done a lot of work to, to prepare for this mission as well through simulations, through, through practice runs. Can you briefly describe some of the, some of the practice runs, what they are and, and why they’re important?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, definitely. It is an absolutely vital piece of our program to do these simulations prior to launch. So the team that helps us monitor and fly the spacecraft during the actual mission, you know, undergoes these practice runs leading up to launch. And, you know, it’s kind of like practicing for the Super Bowl: I’m sure you wouldn’t want to show up on game day never having looked at the playbook that you’re about to run, right? So, these simulations kind of recreate all aspects of the mission, from our pre-launch activities to ascent and on-orbit operations, docking and undocking and landing. And I’ve actually had the opportunity to be a part of the anomaly sim[ulation] team. So we’re essentially responsible for inserting the failure scenarios and, and that allows the team to, you know, exercise their ability to respond to problems. So, you know, we’ll often give a number of, you know, rapid-fire problems across different systems, to kind of, you know, prepare them for the stress of a real mission. And, and our team’s responsibility is to basically watch how that integrated team responds. And, and that way, you know, on actual launch day, this team’s response is basically just conditioned and really muscle memory at that point.

Host: So it’s you, Amy, you are the one giving me all this stress.

Amy Comeau: I know, we’re the bad guys. No, I will say it’s, it’s been pretty interesting being a part of that team, because I found that I actually have learned the most about the vehicle during these simulations because, you know, when we present the team with a problem, they walk through how the particular system is designed and why it’s functioning the way it’s supposed to, and what are the possible scenarios that could have gotten us to this particular anomaly. So we, we, you really basically get an in-depth description of, you know, the system and how it works in real time, which is just so impressive to see.

Host: Yeah, I’ve, I’ve been a part of the sim[ulation]s and I, and I joke, because, because it is, you know, they, they are very stressful situations. You’re, you’re introducing problems into a flight, but, but it’s for that reason. And, and I came, I come out of those sim[ulation]s every time more prepared and more informed about Starliner, its systems, its processes, being able to follow along and, and track an issue and listen to those keywords. It’s all, it’s all very critical stuff. So, so I, I joke, but it is, it is very important stuff. And that’s, that’s really what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to have Starliner handle contingencies, and for the most part the, the sim[ulation]s I’ve been a part of is handling the contingencies in orbit, you know, the, the different retreat possibilities and everything, there’s, there’s a lot that goes into that. But, but from a system level I, I’m, you know, asking you because a, as an engineer, Starliner is, is, give us a sense of how Starliner is prepared for those contingencies. For on orbit, from everything there to, to the abort scenarios, to launch, to water landings when it’s, when it returns, Starliner is really prepared for, for a, a plethora of possibilities. Can you give us a sense of, of what some of those are?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, no. And that’s a great question. You know, I’d say the Starliner system has been designed with these contingencies in mind. There’s scenarios that we have to be able to still function in the event something goes wrong. So the systems across our spacecraft are designed with layers of redundancy and the ability to handle anomalies and still function properly. So, you know, an example would be on a launch abort, right? So if at the pad something is going wrong on the rocket or, or for some other reason, and we have astronauts on board, you know, the Starliner system has to be able to keep these people safe. So, the, the system is capable of firing four launch abort engines with more than 150,000 pounds of thrust that pushes the vehicle far up and away from any dangerous event that’s happening at the pad. And, you know, in a pad abort scenario, ultimately Starliner would land off the coast of Kennedy Space Center, and we would ultimately coordinate with the authorities to go get the capsule out of the ocean. You know, so if there was a water landing we’d, we’d bring the vehicle back, it’s been designed and certified to land in water. It would require some extra inspections in the event of being exposed to salt water, but, you know, designing with a critical eye and, and playing devil’s advocate of what could go wrong — can our system handle that? — that’s been meticulously thought of and baked into Starliner’s development.

Host: For OFT-2 though, you, you’ve already tested this, right, you’ve already tested the, the abort engines, so for, for OFT-2, there’s, there’s really no need to test that again, right? So the, so the abort engines are not fueled up for, for this particular test flight.

Amy Comeau: So our abort engines are enabled in the event that we need to use them, but correct, there is no plan for an abort demonstration. That was done November 2019 with our pad abort test vehicle.

Host: Got it. Now, how the, the, you said Starliner lands on land, that’s, which is a pretty cool capability, the, the recovery operations will occur in the American desert, but Starliner is prepared just in case it needs to make a water landing, it can. So how does it, how does it do that?

Amy Comeau: Yeah, so again, in the event of a pad abort, those launch board engines would start, we’d fly away from the rocket and land off the coast. Essentially, there’s a series of rapid-fire events that happen in order to expose the critical portions of our landing system. So when I talked about, before, the three aspects of the system, we would jettison the service module in order to start to expose the base heat shield and landing airbag systems. And these landing airbag systems allow us again, rather than that pillowy-soft landing on land, they would help us cushion the landing in the water. So, we would also jettison basically some outer shells on the top of the spacecraft that would expose our parachute system; again, that allows us to come down, at, in a controlled manner landing in the water.

Host: Now, of course, Starliner has had all these tests before, OFT-2 is going to have, is going to do the, the, the land landing, that’s the, that’s the plan for, for the return for, for this test flight. You’re, you’re absolutely going to learn a lot, right, that’s the whole point of this, of this test flight is to learn everything you can, to make sure that the spacecraft is ready before you put people in it. So give us a sense of some of those steps that, that you’re going to take. From, from the time that the OFT-2 lands, you guys are going to take a look at all the data, make sure everything’s looking good; some of those steps that’s, that’s needed until we are ready to start putting crew inside Starliner.

Amy Comeau: Yeah. So the post-mission, arguably, is probably just as cool as the actual executing the mission. At least for the engineer in me, right? So when we get the vehicle back into the factory, we, we get to, basically take off its outer shells and do some inspections. And we have a ton, metric ton, of data that we review in our specific team to basically review what happened on OFT-2, review that the, the environments that all of our different components were exposed to, if there were any anomalies that were observed during flight, you know, we’re able to rigorously interrogate our, that particular piece of hardware back at the factory. So to me, getting the spacecraft back is, it basically is our chance to poke and prod and understand what the vehicle had undergone throughout its mission. And then, you know, our plan is to refurbish this vehicle and get it all ready for its next mission. The Starliner capsule is actually designed and rated to fly up to ten missions.

Host: All right. Yeah. And it’s very exciting. The first, of course, that’s, you know, when we talk about crew transportation, really the, the next goal is, is we’re not quite done with testing, we, we’re going to do one more test with people inside of it, to make sure that everything, again, still works. So Starliner will have its maiden flight with people in it as part of the crewed test flight, and then, and then you, and then you start getting into regular crew transportation where, where we’re going to be seeing regular Starliner flights to the station. So, so all of that’s coming up here in the near future. And, and you guys are, I’m guessing are, are very much preparing for that even ahead of OFT-2.

Amy Comeau: Oh, absolutely. You know, while this OFT-2 vehicle was being built, alongside it is our Crewed Flight Test vehicle that is also being built up. So it’s been, you know, the factory’s been pretty busy having these two spacecrafts in flow. And of course, we’re, we’re working really hard to get the vehicle ready so astronauts can take that pretty cool ride in space.

Host: [Laughter] Very good. So, so let’s circle back to OFT-2 for a second. I did want to make sure that we addressed that this is not the first attempt for this mission. We did, we did try to get OFT-2 off the pad back in August of 2021, and we’ve been standing down for a couple of months to address some issues. So I did want to make sure that, that we add some context to those issues and, and what’s happened to prepare us for this upcoming launch here, and just, you know, at the time of this recording less than two weeks. So, so Amy, give us a sense of, of, of what happened and then what the teams have done to prepare for the upcoming launch.

Amy Comeau: Yeah. So our first attempt to OFT-2 was back in August 2021. And basically, during our launch countdown, we were conducting a series of standard checkouts that probe the health and status of both the rocket and Starliner. And in order to get the go to lift off we have to satisfy these things called our launch commitment criteria. So, basically there are these checks to make sure, again, everything is functioning the way we thought. And one of those checkouts is cycling the valves that are located in our service module. And so during this checkout for OFT-2, the first attempt, we found that they weren’t functioning properly. So, you know, the teams took a look at the data and said, hey, you know what, we’re not comfortable with flying today. So we ultimately decided to bring the vehicle back to the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, the factory here, to troubleshoot and investigate further. And we found that in our investigation, there are valves in the service module that were susceptible to corrosion formation due to an interaction with ambient moisture, the oxidizer in the system, and the aluminum housing of the valve. And so, you know, moving forward to OFT-2, the next attempt, we basically decided to move out and completely swap out service modules. So for this mission, we’re flying with a brand new service module that’s comprised of brand new valves and our new integrated direct purge system.

Host: Ooh, tell us, tell us about that. That’s that was your project, right, the purge system?

Amy Comeau: Yeah. So I’ve had a really cool opportunity leading a team that’s been developing this direct purge system. So, you know, throughout our investigation, basically we came to the conclusion that, in order to make sure we’re good to go to fly this time around, we wanted to implement a system that will keep our valves dry. So, the system’s comprised of local valve enclosures where we’re flying dry, sorry, we’re flowing dry gaseous nitrogen to these particular valves. Again, to make sure that there’s no moisture that can eventually cause those corrosion products to form.

Host: Very good. That must have been, that, that’s a pretty, pretty important system that, that you were leading. How, how was that experience when you were charged with that task and had to mobilize a team to, to solve this problem?

Amy Comeau: It was pretty special, I’m not going to lie. My, my management team has been my fiercest advocate, you know, since I’ve been on the program. So it, it was been pretty cool to be trusted, you know, to go help develop the system. But to watch this team come together and, you know, all these different disciplines, all these people that had to make sure, you know, from their point of view that we were implementing the right system, that it was going to work the way in, we intended it to, we, we brought in support from all across the space and launch division, and we had folks review, you know, from an outsider’s perspective, are we getting this right. So having that whole team come together, actually getting to install hardware on the spacecraft, having it checked out to verify that it was installed correctly, and now, you know, seeing it function out in the Vertical Integration Facility, it, it’s kind of like a, it’s the cherry on top. It’s, it’s a really proud moment for the team.

Host: Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s got to, it’s got to feel really good. And, and I’m sure, you know, like, I want to get a sense for your excitement too, and, and your readiness, right? I’m, I’m sure the teams, teams are eager to, to get, to get this mission off the pad, you guys have put a lot of work into this, I’m sure you’ve, you’ve, you’ve double, triple, quadrupled-checked everything, just to make sure that, that everything’s good. Give us a sense of, of, of how you’re feeling and, and how the team’s feeling? What’s the vibe at Boeing for, for this, for, for, for actually executing this mission?

Amy Comeau: Everybody’s ready. You know, I, I think that’s the general, the general consensus around here is that, you know, we’re ready for our shot, which is a pretty cool thing to say. Again, a lot of hard work has gone into getting us to where we are at this point. And we’re just ready to, to see this thing fly, have it dock, have it returned safely, get it back in the factory and, you know, we’re onto the next one.

Host: It’s going to, yeah. Look at that. You’re already thinking ahead to the, to the next one, lots of work to do. And, and it is truly an exciting time. I, I’m going to be right there for, for every step of the way; I, too, am very excited for this mission. I’m very much looking forward to it. And, and so, so, so let’s, let’s go and make it happen, Amy. This has been a pleasure to, to get to better understand what’s going to happen for OFT-2 and better understand what, what steps going into it. There seems to be a strong level of confidence, strong level of excitement. And so, so, you know, let’s, let’s have all of the teams be laser-focused going into this. Amy Comeau, thank you so much for coming on Houston We Have a Podcast.

Amy Comeau: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.

[Music]

Host: Hey, thanks for sticking around. We are all very excited for Orbital Flight Test-2. I hope you learned something today and are also excited for the mission. Check out NASA.gov for the latest updates on the launch of OFT-2. We have a lot of podcasts at NASA.gov/podcasts. We’re one of many across the whole agency, and of course you can check out our full catalog of episodes there at NASA.gov/podcasts, make sure to just click on us Houston We Have a Podcast. I’d especially like you to check out Episode 205, where we last discussed OFT-2 with then-NASA flight director Dr. Bob Dempsey, where we reviewed more about the test objectives and reviewed the first orbital flight test, and the work that was done to prepare for the OFT-2 launch attempt last year. If you want to talk to us, Houston We Have a Podcast, we are on social media, the NASA Johnson Space Center pages of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Just use the hashtag #AskNASA on your favorite platform to submit an idea for the show, make sure to mention it’s for us in Houston We Have a Podcast. This episode was recorded on May 6, 2022. Thanks to Alex Perryman, Pat Ryan, Belinda Pulido, Heidi Lavelle, Beth Weissinger, Steve Siceloff and the Boeing teams for their coordination. And of course, thanks again to Amy Comeau for taking the time to come on the show. Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on and tell us what you think of our podcast. We’ll be back next week.