The Boeing Starliner capsule will be thoroughly tested now that it is back on Earth.
Starliner launched on May 19, launching an important unmanned demonstration mission to International Space Station called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). The spacecraft joined the orbital laboratory a day later, then returned to Earth on Wednesday (May 25). touch down as planned at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
OFT-2 is designed to show this Starliner is ready to transport astronauts to and from orbit for NASA, which signed a contract with Boeing for similar services back in 2014. Both NASA and Boeing do not plan to waste time preparing Starliner for a manned flight.
Live updates: Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 mission to the ISSConnected: Boeing’s Starliner OFT-2 test flight to NASA in amazing photos
During a press briefing shortly after Starliner landed on Wednesday, Mark Napie, vice president and program manager for Boeing’s sales crew, said teams would soon move the vehicle to a training area to prepare it for shipment back to the company’s facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. in Florida, where it is scheduled to arrive around June 9. Then, Napi said, Boeing will begin preparing Starliner for its first crew mission, known as the Crew Flight Test (CFT).
With that in mind, NASA will need to review OFT-2 data before certifying Starliner for a manned flight. And there will be some problems to verify, because the mission did not go completely smoothly. For example, two of the Starliner pushers unsuccessfully during its combustion when launched into orbitwhich happened about half an hour after the start. (A backup booster turned on at the right time and Starliner was able to complete the burn.)
A CFT target has not been set, and NASA and Boeing have not yet announced which astronauts will fly on the mission. However, the leaders of the two organizations expressed hope that the test flight, which will take the astronauts to the orbital laboratory, will take place before the end of the year and said that the specifics of the launch date and crew could be finalized sometime this summer.
Boeing is not the only company to have a contract with NASA’s sales crew program. SpaceX signed one in 2014 and has already launched four manned operational missions to the space station with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule.
At Wednesday’s press conference after landing on Wednesday, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stitch mentioned a photo he saw of Starliner and Dragon hanging on the space station.
You know, I’m a little goosebumps when I talk about it, because between Starliner and Dragon it really is this commercial program all the time – to have these two different companies, with the great systems they have developed, provide transportation for the crew to the space station. this new commercial crew model, “said Stitch.” And the flight we just landed today demonstrates that the Starliner is a great crew vehicle. “
NASA astronaut Sunny Williams is one of the few selected to train to fly the Starliner, and she has worked with Boeing teams to develop the vehicle. At a press briefing on May 18, Williams was already looking forward to Starliner’s return, saying, “We want the spacecraft back so we can start testing the environmental control system.” with a crew, but we are angry. ”
OFT-2 was Starliner’s second attempt at an unmanned mission to the space station. During the first, which launched in December 2019, Starliner suffered software problems and crashed into the wrong orbit for a meeting. OFT-2 was also scheduled to launch last summer, but routine inspections revealed more than a dozen stuck valves in the Starliner drive systema problem that ultimately halted the mission for more than eight months.
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