Boeing Co. and NASA launched the long-delayed Starliner space capsule for a scheduled meeting with the International Space Station, after two earlier failed attempts at a program that rocked the company and left SpaceX as the only U.S. option to transport astronauts.
Boeing Co. and NASA launched the long-delayed Starliner space capsule for a scheduled meeting with the International Space Station, after two earlier failed attempts at a program that rocked the company and left SpaceX as the only U.S. option to transport astronauts.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched the unmanned spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:54 p.m. ET on Thursday for a day cruise to the space station.
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The CST-100 Starship is scheduled to arrive about 24 hours later on Friday and plans to test a number of docking technologies that Boeing failed to perform during a flight in December 2019, interrupted by software bugs.
Boeing and NASA engineers are investigating why two of the 12 propulsion devices located at the rear of the spacecraft failed during a key maneuver, although the flight computers quickly switched to other propulsion devices, said the NASA sales crew manager. Steve Stitch at a briefing hours after the launch. The traction system is also used in the early stages of Starliner’s approach to the space station and when it deorbits to begin its return to Earth.
“The system is designed to be redundant and works as it was designed, and now the team is working on the cause of these anomalies,” said Mark Napie, Boeing’s Starliner manager. Engineers may be able to solve the problems with the propulsion device during the flight, Stitch said.
A system that removes heat from inside the spacecraft, called a sublimator, is also being implemented “slowly” during the ascent and will be studied, Stitch said.
The test flight comes at a critical time for Boeing, which is trying to overcome years of challenges with the development of Starliner. Boeing has amassed $ 595 million in extraordinary fees to cover Starliner’s delays, including $ 185 million last October. In addition, CEO Dave Calhoun has been criticized by customers and investors as Boeing struggles to meet deadlines and technical standards in its product range.
“We wouldn’t be here right now if we weren’t confident it would be a successful mission,” astronaut Butch Wilmore said during a pre-launch briefing with NASA officials on Wednesday. Wilmore was joined by astronauts Sunita Williams and Mark Finke; the three have worked with Boeing on development and each hopes to be selected for a future Starliner flight.
Second transport
NASA wants to get a second transport option for its commercial crew program, a goal set eight years ago by contracting Boeing and Elon Musk’s Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies to build and operate astronaut vehicles to and from the space station . SpaceX has made four rotations of astronauts to the ISS, with the last launch on April 27 and the fifth scheduled for September.
Raising the ship is just one of Boeing’s many challenges, including delays in the delivery of the 787’s leading wide-body merchant aircraft and a shortage of parts that has slowed the production of the best-selling 737 Max. Boeing is also involved in ongoing work to prepare a separate project for NASA, the massive SLS rocket for missions to the moon, to launch after years of delay and cost overruns.
If the flight test does not reveal additional major problems, the plan is for the program to be ready for flight testing with astronauts by the end of 2022. After that, regular rotations of the Starliner ISS crew will begin in 2023, excluding additional problems.
The last attempt to launch the Starliner in August was canceled after a number of valves of the propulsion system used in space stopped responding shortly before the planned flight. This caused extensive testing and prompted engineers to seal the valves better and prevent moisture from seeping in, which is thought to have contributed to a chemical reaction that interfered with their work.
The previous 2019 experiment, in which Starliner spent 48 hours in orbit, was overshadowed by what NASA’s review panel later considered two “critical software flaws.” Starliner suffered a problem with its mission timing software shortly after reaching space, with the ship showing an elapsed time of 11 hours different from the actual mission time. This caused him to launch multiple propulsion devices too early, burning too much fuel to allow the ship to proceed to the space station. Five months later, Boeing said it wanted a second demonstration flight without a crew.
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