Boeing’s Starliner CST-100 capsule has joined its rocket.
Technicians arranged Starliner on top of its United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas B rocket on Wednesday (May 4th) at the ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida.
ULA and Boeing prepare for Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), a crucial unmanned test mission for International Space Station (ISS), which is due to launch on May 19. If all goes well with OFT-2, Starliner is likely to get permission to transport NASA astronauts to and from the orbital laboratory in the near future.
in photos: The mission of the Boeing Starliner OFT-2 in photos
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft sits on top of its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on May 4, 2022 (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)
Starliner boarded VIF on Wednesday from Boeing’s sales crew and NASA’s cargo handling facility Kennedy Space Center, which is adjacent to the space force station at Cape Canaveral. The capsule made the trip to the top of the ULA’s payload carrier, traveling at a top speed of 8 km / h, ULA officials said.
“Approaching VIF, the carrier maneuvers to the entrance of the 30-storey building and parks,” ULA wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “A four-point lifting hoop, called the Handling Fixture Hoist Tool, was attached to the Starliner for the bridge crane to carefully lift the spacecraft on the Atlas V waiting in the VIF aboard its mobile launch platform.”
As its name suggests, the OFT-2 will be Boeing’s second unmanned test mission to the ISS. The first, which launched in December 2019, was discontinued after Starliner suffered several software errors and failed to meet with the orbital laboratory.
The OFT-2, which will use a different Starliner vehicle from the original OFT, has faced some of its own problems. The mission was originally scheduled to launch last August, but pre-flight inspections revealed jammed valves in the capsule’s service module.
After a lengthy investigation, Boeing and NASA teams identifies the cause – the oxidant reacts with moisture in the air, generating nitric acid, which then creates corrosion products that interfere with the functioning of the valve – and came up with mitigation measures. And Starliner is now getting ready to take off again.
Boeing has a contract with NASA’s sales crew program and aims to start flying astronauts with Starliner by the end of 2022 if OFT-2 is doing well. SpaceX has a similar deal and is already working with its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket; Elon Musk’s company launches its fourth operational astronaut mission to NASA, known as Crew-4on April 27.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow it on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
Add Comment