After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner capsule was set to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, a milestone for the US aerospace giant and NASA.
The flight, a final test before Starliner takes up regular service for the space agency, is critical for Boeing, whose reputation has suffered of late due to safety issues with its passenger jets.
For NASA, the stakes are also high: Having a second option for human space flight in addition to SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles is “really important,” said Dana Weigel, manager of the agency’s International Space Station program.
Photo: Reuters
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were set to take off from Cape Canaveral at 10:34pm yesterday, if favorable weather predicted for the launch continued to hold.
Starliner was to be propelled into orbit by an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture.
Once in space, one of Wilmore and Williams’ tasks would be to temporarily pilot the craft manually, in a test.
The astronauts, both US Navy-trained space program veterans, have each been to the ISS twice, traveling once on a shuttle and then aboard a Russian Soyuz vessel.
“It’s going to be like going back home,” Williams said ahead of the launch.
Starliner is scheduled to arrive at the ISS at about 5am GMT tomorrow, and remain there for a little over a week. Tests would be performed to check it is working properly, and then Williams and Wilmore would reboard the capsule to return home.
A successful mission would help dispel the bitter taste left by the numerous setbacks in the program.
During a first uncrewed test flight in 2019, the capsule was not placed on the right trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS.
Then in 2021, with the rocket on the launchpad for a new flight, blocked valves forced another postponement.
The empty vessel finally reached the ISS in May 2022, but problems since then have delayed the crewed test flight, necessary for the capsule to be certified for NASA’s use on regular ISS missions.
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free had predicted the mission would not be hiccup-free.
“We certainly have some unknowns in this mission, things we expect to learn, being a test mission. We may encounter things we don’t expect,” Free said.
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