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The launch is the latest step toward NASA becoming more reliant on the private sector for its manned flights.
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After two trips to the launch pad that did not end in space, two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant.
The first trip with astronauts aboard the Starliner, a 4.5-meter-wide capsule, comes four years and six days after SpaceX, the other company that NASA contracted to provide astronaut trips, launched its first mission. with astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing is now prepared to provide that service as well, but a series of costly delays repeatedly prevented astronauts from flying earlier with the company’s vehicle. SpaceX, once considered an upstart company, has launched a total of 13 crews into orbit.
The long-awaited flight of the Boeing spacecraft is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.
“This is another milestone in NASA’s extraordinary history,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference after the launch.
When the Starliner arrives at the space station on Thursday, it will join a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule already docked there. NASA officials have remained steadfast in their desire to have two different American space vehicles capable of carrying astronauts into orbit.
“We always like to have a backup,” Nelson said. “This is safer for our astronauts.”
If the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide good news for Boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel on an Alaska Airlines plane came off during a flight earlier this year.
Boeing’s space division has also come under pressure, as work on the Starliner has dragged on for longer than either the company or NASA anticipated. Technical difficulties include inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable adhesive tape and a key component of the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than expected.
A few minutes before launch, Butch Wilmore, the mission commander, said, “Let’s put some fire in this rocket. Let’s take it to the sky.”
Suni Williams, the other crew member who acts as pilot, added: “Come on, Calypso, take us to space and back,” in reference to the name she had given the capsule, in honor of the ship used by Calypso. the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
At 10:52 a.m. ET, the engines of an Atlas V rocket ignited, lifting the Starliner spacecraft on an arcing trajectory into space. Today’s launch and early phases of orbit flight were a relief and went off without a hitch.
“I’m smiling, believe me,” said Mark Nappi, the Boeing executive in charge of the Starliner. “But it’s a bit of a controlled emotion, because there are many phases to this mission. And we only completed the first one.”
A small failure had to do with a system that provides cooling during the trip to orbit. The cooling system, known as a sublimator, used a little more water than expected. Once in orbit, the vehicle switched to another cooling system, a radiator, and although engineers will investigate what happened, the failure will not affect the mission.
Wilmore and Williams were scheduled to dock at the station at 12:15 pm Thursday.
During the journey, Wilmore and Williams will take time to test manually piloting the spacecraft, something that is not usually necessary except in emergencies. Life support systems will also be checked.
The astronauts will then spend at least eight days on the space station before returning to Earth. The mission has 87 test targets in total. “There are many flight test objectives of, let’s say, ergonomic types,” Nappi explained. “How do the seats adjust? How do the suits work? What do the screens look like?”
After the mission, NASA and Boeing will review the flight data to complete the certification of the Starliner. The spacecraft would then be ready to begin operational flights once a year to transport NASA crews during six-month stays on the space station. Each Starliner capsule — Boeing has two for orbital missions — is designed for 10 missions.
The road to Wednesday’s flight has taken years.
In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX, the rocket company run by Elon Musk, to build replacements for the space shuttles that had ferried astronauts to and from the space station before being retired in 2011. NASA had begun pay Russia to carry its astronauts into orbit on Soyuz rockets.
Congress was skeptical and repeatedly cut the money NASA had requested for the commercial crew program. At the time, SpaceX was on the rise, but it was not the dominant force it has become today in the rocket launch industry. Boeing’s choice helped reassure lawmakers that NASA was making a sound investment.
NASA initially said SpaceX’s Starliner and Crew Dragon could be ready in 2017.
Both companies took longer than expected, a common occurrence in the aerospace industry.
But in December 2019, Boeing appeared to be on the home stretch. Then, a Starliner test without astronauts on board went awry due to software problems, and a planned docking was cancelled. NASA called the flight a “high-visibility incident,” as software glitches could have led to the vehicle’s destruction if they had not been corrected before reentry.
Boeing and NASA decided to repeat the uncrewed test, but it was delayed due to corrosion of the propellant valves and the Starliner did not take off again until May 2022.
Then more problems arose. The protective tape wrapping the wiring insulation turned out to be flammable, and a key but weak component of the parachute system could have ruptured if Starliner’s three parachutes did not deploy properly.
These delays cost Boeing $1.4 billion, and while Starliner remained grounded, SpaceX launched nine crewed missions for NASA (one of them, Crew-8, is currently docked at the station) and four other commercial missions carrying non-passengers. to NASA on board.
This year’s round of launch attempts began on May 6. The flight was thwarted by a valve failure on the Atlas V rocket. A small helium leak was then discovered in the Starliner’s propulsion system, which led to several weeks of investigation.
The second launch attempt, on Saturday, came up to 3 minutes and 50 seconds before liftoff, when the computers autonomously managing the final parts of the launch sequence encountered a problem and stopped the countdown.
In the days that followed, technicians replaced a faulty electrical component and prepared the groundwork for Wednesday’s successful launch.
Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.
Kenneth Chang, a Times science journalist, covers NASA and the solar system, as well as research closer to Earth. More by Kenneth Chang
Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.
