He Starliner It successfully took off at 9:52 am Peruvian time in an important step to certify Boeing’s spacecraft. The vehicle, carrying astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will dock at the International Space Station approximately 24 hours after takeoff.
This trip will serve to test several of the spacecraft’s systems with the intention of it joining SpaceX’s Dragon as one of the commercial vehicles certified to take astronauts to space.
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Boeing hopes that the third time will be the charm on Wednesday in a new attempt to launch its first manned Starliner spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS), after previous aborted takeoffs even minutes before.
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Takeoff is scheduled at 10:52 a.m. local time (09:52 a.m. Peruvian time) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in the state of Florida (southeast), for a stay of approximately one week in the orbital laboratory.
The most recent attempt, last Saturday, was dramatically aborted with less than four minutes left in the countdown, when the ground launch computer went into an automatic pause.
Later, it was determined that the problem was due to a faulty power supply connected to the computer. A failed unit was later replaced.
A faulty valve in the rocket of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) group, the joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, thwarted a previous attempt on May 6, hours before takeoff.
In both cases, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were prepared for launch, but were forced to return to strict quarantine in their cabins.
Boeing’s troubled space program has faced years of delays and adversity. A successful mission would give it a long-awaited respite from the security concerns surrounding its passenger planes.
Meanwhile, NASA seeks to certify Boeing as a second commercial operator to transport its crews to the ISS.
SpaceX, owned by magnate Elon Musk, has been playing this role for four years.
Setbacks
Both companies received multimillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their manned and autonomously piloted capsules, after the Space Shuttle program came to an end in 2011, which had left the United States temporarily dependent on Russian rockets to carry out its trips. .
Boeing, with its 100 years of history, was greatly favored over its then upstart competitor, but its program was falling behind.
The setbacks ranged from a software glitch that put the spacecraft on a bad trajectory in its first unmanned test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical insulation tape after the second.
As teams worked to replace the rocket’s faulty valve that postponed the previous launch attempt, a small helium leak located in one of the spacecraft’s boosters came to light.
Instead of changing its seal, which would require disassembling the Starliner At the factory, NASA and Boeing officials deemed it safe enough to fly as is.
When they actually fly, Wilmore and Williams will be in charge of setting the Starliner to test, which includes taking manual control of the spacecraft on its way to the ISS.
While on the platform, the crew will carry out further tests, such as simulating whether the ship can be used as a safe haven in case of problems at the orbital outpost.
After undocking, Starliner will re-enter the atmosphere and make an assisted landing with a parachute and airbag in the western United States.
Starliner is about to become the sixth type of American-built spacecraft to carry NASA astronauts, following the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s and 1970s, the space shuttle from 1981 to 2011, and the Crew SpaceX Dragon as of 2020.
