Astronauts living aboard the International Space Station opened the hatch for the first time to the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at 12:04 a.m. EDT on Saturday, May 21, on its unmanned orbital flight test-2.
“This is an important day in NASA’s history and is simply paving the way for the future as we begin to allow commercial flights here in low Earth orbit as NASA orbits the moon and eventually Mars,” said NASA astronaut Bob Hines.
Starliner launched the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket in a flight test to the International Space Station at 6:54 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, from Space Launch Complex-41 on the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. The unmanned spacecraft successfully joined the Harmony module of the space station at 20:28 EDT on Friday, May 20.
For the flight test, Starliner transported about 500 pounds of NASA cargo and crew and more than 300 pounds of Boeing cargo to the International Space Station. After certification, NASA missions aboard Starliner will transport up to four crew members to the station, which will allow the crew to continue to expand and increase the amount of science and research that can be performed aboard the orbital laboratory.
The unmanned flight test is designed to test the capabilities from end to end of the crew-capable system as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. OFT-2 will provide valuable data for NASA by certifying Boeing’s transport system for regular astronaut flights to and from the space station.
Starliner is due to leave the space station on Wednesday, May 25, when he will detach and return to Earth, with a desert landing in the western United States. provide breathing air to station crew members. The tanks will be repaired on Earth and sent back to the station for a future flight.
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