Boeing and NASA are adjusting the final preparations for the first manned space mission aboard the Starliner spacecraft, whose launch to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Monday night from Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA). USA).
The launch, which will take place from a platform at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:34 p.m. local time (02:34 GMT on Tuesday), has 95% favorable weather conditions, according to the agency. American space
(Read: The nations that topped the list of rocket launches in 2023).
The capsule is already mounted on top of an Atlas V launch rocket, from the United Launch Alliance (ULA), ready to receive its crew, made up of experienced NASA astronauts Barry ‘Butch’, a little less than three hours before takeoff. Wilmore and Sunita Williams. If the takeoff is successful, the Starliner will reach the ISS, which is moving at more than 28,000 kilometers per hour, and will proceed to fit autonomously into the Harmony module at 00:46 hours (04:46 GMT) on Wednesday.
The CFT (Crew Flight Test) mission is a test mission, as both Boeing and NASA have emphasized, and therefore the crew and controllers expect unforeseen events to arise on the trip, during which at certain times Wilmore and Williams will operate the ship manually.
One of the objectives of the mission is to observe how the ship, 5 meters high and 4.6 meters in diameter, performs in the harsh conditions of space. The success of the mission will mean that NASA will have a second supplier, after SpaceX, for the transportation of manned and cargo missions to the orbital laboratory, under contracts signed with both firms in 2014. “We have made an effort because (the Commercial Crew program has two independent space transportation systems.
(Read: The details of the first manned mission of the Starliner space capsule).
The Boeing and NASA alliance faces a great challenge.
That has been our goal since its inception and we are very close to achieving it,” said NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich last Friday. Until this Monday’s mission, Boeing has received about $4.2 billion in under the contract signed with the US space agency 10 years ago, while in the same period SpaceX received 2.6 billion dollars and to date has already made more than a dozen flights to the ISS aboard its Dragon capsule. The president himself. SpaceX executive, tycoon Elon Musk, brought up these differences in a message on his X account this Monday, in which he added: “Too many non-technical managers at Boeing After a couple of failed attempts, Boeing successfully launched.” an unmanned mission on May 19, 2022, which docked at the ISS the next day, where the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft remained for four days before separating autonomously and then landing in New Mexico (USA).
In 2023, problems detected in the parachute system and in some fiberglass insulating tapes forced the postponement of a manned mission when there was a month and a half left before takeoff, which was scheduled for July 21 of that year. After spending about a week on the ISS, the spacecraft will make its way back to the southwest of the United States, where the Starliner will descend with an improved parachute system.
