Boeing’s new Starliner capsule was launched on Thursday during an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station to ensure the company’s much-needed success after more than two years of delays and costly engineering failures.
The dripping CST-100 Starliner took off shortly before 19:00 EDT (2300 GMT) from the US space station at Cape Canaveral in Florida, rising to the top of the Atlas V rocket provided by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin Joint Launch Alliance (ULA) ).
About 30 minutes after takeoff, Boeing’s Starliner space capsule launched a key test flight into orbit and a self-powered flight to a scheduled meeting with the space station.
It was at this point in Starliner’s previous test flight at the end of 2019 that a software problem effectively thwarted the spacecraft’s ability to reach the space station.
The flight of the capsule into orbit on Thursday was not without difficulties. Two on-board pushers, out of a set of 12, failed during Starliner’s 45-second “orbital launch” maneuver, NASA and Boeing officials said at a news conference after the launch.
However, a backup propulsion device was activated and the maneuver was completed, they said, adding that the malfunction, although not yet explained, should not prevent the spacecraft from reaching its destination or returning safely to Earth.
“The system is designed to be redundant and works as it should,” said Mark Napie, Boeing’s Starliner program manager. “We have a safe vehicle and we are on our way to the International Space Station.
The capsule was scheduled to arrive at the space station about 24 hours after the launch and take off with the research post into orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth on Friday night.
The Boeing must spend four to five days attached to the space station before disconnecting and flying back to Earth, with an airbag cushioned parachute landing on the desert floor of White Sands, New Mexico.
A successful mission will move the long-delayed Starliner one step closer to providing NASA with a second reliable means of transporting astronauts to and from the space station.
After resuming crew flights into orbit from the United States in 2020, nine years after the end of the space shuttle program, the U.S. space agency had to rely solely on Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rockets and Crew Dragon capsules to NASA astronauts are flying.
Previously, the only other way to reach the orbital laboratory was by boarding the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“Having a backup is important for the country,” NASA chief Bill Nelson told Reuters hours before takeoff.
Thursday’s launch also comes at a crucial time for Boeing as the Chicago-based company tries to emerge from successive crises in its jet business and space defense business. The Starliner program alone forced Boeing to charge $ 595 million after the failure of its first unmanned test flight into orbit in 2019.
Payload and passenger model
Starliner did not fly into orbit empty. The capsule carried a research mannequin, bizarrely called the Rosie Rocket and dressed in a blue flight suit to collect data on crew cabin conditions during the voyage, plus 227 kilograms of cargo for the space station crew – three NASA astronauts, European space astronaut. the agency from Italy and three Russian astronauts.
Following a failed test mission in 2019, subsequent problems with the Starliner propulsion system supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne prompted Boeing to eliminate an attempt to launch the capsule last summer.
The two companies have been arguing over what caused the closure of their fuel valves and which company is responsible for repairing them, Reuters reported last week.
Boeing said it has since resolved the issue with a temporary solution and is planning a redesign after the flight this week.
If the second trip to orbit without a crew succeeds, Starliner could fly with his first team of astronauts in the fall, although NASA officials warn that the time period may be postponed.
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