I flew Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in 4 different simulators. Here's what I learned (video, photos)

The mission designers try to take advantage of "the universe in its ultimate elegance" to bring the crew safely to the station, Bigonesse emphasized. That means using the mathematics of orbital mechanics, or how things naturally move in space. Automatic controls can steer the spacecraft to a great extent, while the crew is trained to jump in if trouble arises.

Bigonesse demonstrated the translational hand controller that controls up, down, left and right motions, along with a rotational hand controller that moves the spacecraft in pitch and roll directions. While it's tempting to space-cowboy ourselves close to the space station, he said astronauts learn that "nothing is fast in proximity operations."

Especially when a spacecraft is only 30 feet (10 meters) away from the space station. "Things get really scary, real quick," Bigonesse said. That's why the spacecraft has so many backups, aside from the crew training. In fact, switching from autonomous to piloted flight takes several motions: swiping up on a switch that says "Flight Controller," then raising the switch covers in two places to make the sticks "hot," or controllable. 

Related: You can dock a SpaceX Crew Dragon at the space station in this free simulator

Unlike SpaceX, Boeing elected to use switches, buttons and manual controllers in the spacecraft because touchscreens are usually not "hardened" or protected against radiation. The company also preferred the old-school style to make it harder to accidentally trigger the wrong setting if an astronaut brushed against the controls.

Incidentally, for the extra challenge of reaching up to a switch in launch pad configuration, I had the chance to briefly sit in the Boeing Mission Trainer at JSC's Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (Building 9). Crews don't really learn switch configurations here, but they do get used to coming in and out of the spacecraft. With enough imagination, you can even look out the nearby window and imagine the blackness of space outside.

Related: Boeing begins fueling Starliner capsule ahead of 1st astronaut launch

Some of the Starliner switches, as we tested elsewhere, are simple toggles up and down. But a selection of the switches required a different motion: pull the switch out first, then carefully nudge it in the right direction. Buttons, if critical, were protected behind liftable plastic panels.

One might be fooled into thinking this design is a complete call-back to the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s that brought a couple of dozen people to the moon, among other milestones. But Bigonesse had warned us that is only partially true. Apollo astronauts often navigated by "line of sight piloting techniques," which the Starliner astronauts only do occasionally (usually in case of emergency). 

The newer Boeing spacecraft, rather, uses laser sensors that have been tested through the space shuttle era. But the backup training conducted by astronauts remains crucial: "We know from flying the shuttle, 135 missions, that every single sensor that has ever flown in space has either had some kind of ground failure or in-space anomaly," Bigonesse said. "We want to build in the secondary and tertiary systems that allow us to use plain old eyeballs to fly the spacecraft."

In the Boeing Mission Simulator, with every switch laid out just like a real cockpit, we simulated a nominal launch with me in the commander's seat (and yes, I got to throw some switches, although not when we were in the training program.)

As I was untrained, I got an easier ride than the astronauts would. "We often introduce problems," Tim Terry, Starliner chief training officer, told us. "That's what we're paid to do, is overcome problems."

Terry and his team often spend a week or two scripting "scenarios" for the crew to practice dealing with anomalies a week or two before each simulation. "Then we launch, and things start happening. They [the astronauts] have got to react to those things: fix them, walk around them, save the day. That's how I get paid."

The simulator produces normal launch noises and displays, if not the sensations. We heard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket — Starliner's ride off Earth — ignite, along with the firing up of the solid rocket boosters. The "eight ball" indicating forces of gravity upon us began rocking, and various displays showed us the time remaining until main engine cutoff, notional velocity and other critical numbers to tell us if things were going well (or not).

Given the astronauts and teams are used to nominal and off-nominal scenarios after years working of together, the refinement is now about communication. "We're watching, how do the teams integrate and coordinate with each other? What is the communication line from the Starliner crew to the Mission Control? What is the communication line between the two mission control teams?" Terry said.

"Those are the more nuanced things that I'm looking at. As we get close to flight ... I'm looking for, What's the performance of the overall larger team?"

Then there's the real leap forward compared to the Apollo generation: virtual reality. Finnish company Varjo uses Unreal Engine-powered VR software that allows you to interact with a Starliner cockpit. I got to try that experience for about 15 minutes, and as a fairly avid console gamer, I had a great time in the virtual world.

With some practice, the Varjo enterprise-class XR-4 controllers feel pretty intuitive, too: you can move a virtual pair of hands around the cockpit and throw switches and push buttons. A tiny bit of haptic feedback tells you when you've hit the right spot.

"Traditional simulators are often physically constrained to a certain location, and they are very expensive to manufacture. There are limited hours that you can spend ... inside a physical simulator," Annaleena Kuronen, Varjo's head of communication, told Space.com.

"A VR simulator can replicate that same visual experience of sitting inside a simulator, with all the details. But the system is completely portable. So all you need is a PC, a headset, and possibly some tracking technology. It all fits into a suitcase, which means that if you're remote ... we're able to continue training, as you would be sitting in the physical simulator with a much less expensive system."

In comments at a press conference March 22, Wilmore praised the new VR capability, saying it helps "refresh our memory" on maintenance tasks and other checklist items.

"That's a technology that hasn't existed in the past, [that] virtual reality of the cockpit," the NASA astronaut said. That tech, he added, will help the crew train on "very important things that we might have to do maintenance on, in a certain specific scenario."

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace