(CNN) — Boeing’s Starliner mission will make a third attempt to launch its first crewed test flight this Wednesday, a milestone a decade in the making.
The new maiden voyage of the spacecraft with humans on board is scheduled to lift off at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, mounted on an Atlas V rocket. The historic event will be broadcast live on NASA’s website, with coverage beginning at 6:45 a.m. ET.
Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are set to travel aboard the Starliner capsule on a journey that will take them to the International Space Station.
Weather conditions are 90% favorable for a launch this Wednesday morning, with the only concern being cumulus clouds, according to the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.
If liftoff does not occur this Wednesday, there is another opportunity at 10:29 a.m. ET this Thursday, according to NASA.
The mission, called Crew Flight Test, is the culmination of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and expand the United States’ options for transporting astronauts to the space station under the Space Program. NASA Commercial Crew. The federal agency’s initiative aims to foster collaboration with private industry partners.
If successful, the flight would mark the sixth maiden voyage of a manned spacecraft in US history, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference in May.
“It started with Mercury, then Gemini, then Apollo, the space shuttle, then the Dragon capsule (SpaceX) and now Starliner,” Nelson said.
Williams will also make history as the first woman to fly such a mission.
A historic flight with ambitious objectives
If Starliner takes off successfully, astronauts will spend just over 24 hours traveling to the space station.
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After docking around 12:15 p.m. ET this Thursday, Williams and Wilmore will spend eight days living in the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board.
Aboard Starliner is a crucial bomb needed to repair the space station’s urine processor assembly, which failed on May 29.
“That urine processor collects all of the crew’s urine and processes it in the first step of a water recovery system,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s International Space Station Program manager. “Then it is sent to a water processor that converts it into drinking water. “The station is designed to be a closed circuit.”
Now, urine must be stored on board in containers, so Starliner’s anticipated arrival at the space station can’t come soon enough.
The astronauts will test various aspects of Starliner’s capabilities, including the performance of the spacecraft’s thrusters, how their spacesuits operate inside the capsule, and manual piloting in case the crew needs to override the spacecraft’s autopilot. .
Williams and Wilmore will also test Starliner’s “safe haven” capability, designed to offer the space station crew shelter if there is a problem, according to Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, during a news conference. press on May 31.
When it is time to return home, the astronauts will return using the same Starliner capsule and land by parachute at one of several designated locations in the southwestern United States.
Years of development delays, test flight problems and other costly setbacks have delayed Starliner’s path to the launch pad. Meanwhile, SpaceX, Boeing’s competitor in NASA’s commercial program, has become the transportation provider for the space agency’s astronauts.
This mission could be the last major milestone for NASA to deem Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft ready for routine operations and to deliver astronauts and cargo to the space station.
Several problems caused the manned flight’s previous launch attempts, on May 6 and June 1, to be canceled.
Two hours before the May 6 launch attempt, engineers identified a problem with a valve in the second, or upper, stage of the Atlas V rocket, which was built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. . The entire stack, including the rocket and spacecraft, was removed from the launch pad for testing and repairs.
Teams also worked on a small helium leak inside the spacecraft’s service module, a “design vulnerability” in the propulsion system and evaluated parachutes for the Starliner capsule.
Starliner was just 3 minutes and 50 seconds away from liftoff this Saturday afternoon when an automatic hold was activated by the ground launch sequencer, or the computer that launches the rocket.
United Launch Alliance technicians and engineers evaluated ground support equipment over the weekend, examining three large computers housed inside a shelter at the base of the launch pad. Each computer is the same, providing triple redundancy to ensure the safe launch of manned missions.
“Imagine a large rack that is a large computer where the functions of the computer as a controller are divided separately into individual cards or printed circuit boards,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, during a press conference this week. Saturday. “They are independent, but together, they are an integrated controller.”
Cards inside the computers are responsible for different key systems that must occur before a launch, such as releasing the bolts at the base of the rocket so it can take off after ignition.
During the last four minutes before launch, the three computers must communicate and agree with each other. But during Saturday’s countdown, a card on one of the computers responded six seconds later than the other two, indicating something was wrong and an automatic hold was activated, according to Bruno.
Over the weekend, engineers evaluated the computers, their power source, and network communications between the computers. The team isolated the problem to a single ground power source inside one of the computers, which provides power to computer boards responsible for key countdown events, including the reset valves for the rocket’s upper stage, which also caused a problem during the countdown, according to an update shared by NASA.
Starliner crews reported they found no signs of physical damage to the computer, which was removed and replaced with a spare. The other computers and their cards were also evaluated, and all are functioning normally as expected, according to the ULA team.
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