Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is officially en route to the International Space Station, marking a historic first for the long-delayed astronaut transportation program. Inside the spacecraft are two NASA astronauts, space flight veterans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will arrive at the station on Thursday.
The spacecraft lifted off at 10:55 a.m. ET from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard a United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture) Atlas V rocket. The liftoff comes after a series of delays that pushed the mission back almost a month, first due to problems with the Atlas rocket and then due to a problem with one of the three ground computers responsible for counting down the launch.
While there are more milestones Starliner must reach before Boeing and NASA can call the mission a success (docking at the ISS and eventually returning astronauts to Earth), it is still a historic breakthrough for the long-delayed Starliner program. astronaut transport of the aerospace giant.
If all goes as planned, Boeing will become NASA's second astronaut transportation provider, joining Elon Musk's SpaceX. Both companies received multimillion-dollar contracts from NASA to develop a manned taxi service a decade ago, but Boeing's program has been hit by technical delays that have sent the company more than $1.5 billion over budget. Boeing successfully executed Unmanned mission to the ISS in May 2022.but this is the first time the spacecraft has transported humans.
While Boeing has struggled, SpaceX has soared: Using its Crew Dragon capsule, SpaceX has been providing astronaut transportation to and from the ISS since 2020.
Wilmore and Williams will make an approximately 26-hour trip to the ISS, with an expected arrival around 12:15 p.m. EST on Thursday. During their trip, they will conduct several flight test objectives to support Strainer's certification for regular missions. They will have to demonstrate the performance of the crew's equipment from prelaunch to climb, evaluate the Starliner's thrust performance, test navigation systems, perform communications checks and evaluate life support systems.
Even after Starliner autonomously docks with the station and the crew is aboard the ISS, the two astronauts will conduct even more evaluations of the spacecraft's performance, including determining whether it can function as a “safe haven.” for astronauts in the unlikely event that a problem arises. aboard the space station.
Wilmore and Williams will remain aboard the station for about a week before reboarding the spacecraft. After just six hours, Starliner is expected to land by parachute and assisted by airbags somewhere in the southwestern United States.
This is the last major step before Starliner can be certified as an operational crew system, with the first Starliner mission expected to launch in 2025.
Leave feedback about this