Boeing Co and NASA on Thursday launched the long-delayed Starliner space capsule for a planned rendezvous with the International Space Station, following two earlier failed attempts for a program that has bedeviled the company and left SpaceX as the only US option for ferrying astronauts.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched the craft, without crew, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:54pm on Thursday for a day-long cruise to the space station.
The CST-100 Starship was scheduled to arrive about 24 hours later yesterday and planned to test multiple docking technologies that Boeing was unable to perform during a December 2019 flight cut short by software flaws.
Photo: NASA / Joel Kowsky / EPA-EFE
Boeing and NASA engineers are exploring why two of the 12 thrusters situated at the aft of the spacecraft failed during a key maneuvering burn, although flight computers quickly switched to other thrusters, NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a news briefing hours after the launch.
The thrust system is also used in early phases of the Starliner’s approach to the space station and when it de-orbits to commence its return to Earth.
“The system is designed to be redundant and worked as designed, and now the team is working on why we had those anomalies occur,” Starliner manager Mark Nappi said.
Engineers might be able to resolve the thruster issues during the flight, Stich said.
A system that removes heat from the spacecraft interior, called a sublimator, also performed “sluggishly” during the ascent and would be probed, Stich said.
The test flight comes at a critical moment for Boeing, which is trying to overcome years of challenges with Starliner’s development. Boeing has tallied US$595 million in extraordinary charges to cover Starliner delays, including US$185 million in October last year.
Moreover, CEO Dave Calhoun is under fire from customers and investors, as Boeing struggles to meet deadlines and technical standards across its product lineup.
“We wouldn’t be here right now if we weren’t confident this would be a successful mission,” astronaut Butch Wilmore said on Wednesday during a prelaunch news briefing with NASA officials.
Wilmore was joined by astronauts Sunita Williams and Mark Fincke; the three have been working with Boeing on the development, and each is hoping to be selected for a future Starliner flight.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including