The first two astronauts transported aboard the Starliner, the spacecraft of the American aeronautical giant Boeing, entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (06/06/2024), despite a delay due to problems with the propulsion system.
“What a great place to be, it’s great to be back here,” said smiling Butch Wilmore, an astronaut with the US space agency NASA.
Wilmore, 61, along with Suni Williams, 58, thus made their third visit to the ISS on the Starliner’s first manned mission, a great challenge for the aerospace giant, as well as for NASA.
Ten years ago, the US space agency ordered two new vehicles from Boeing and SpaceX to transport its astronauts to the ISS. While SpaceX has been acting as a space taxi for four years now, Boeing’s program is years behind schedule.
After taking off from Florida the day before, the spacecraft gently approached the ISS on Thursday, flying 400 km above the Earth and traveling at about 28,000 km/h.
The docking occurred at 5:34 p.m. GMT, approximately one hour and 20 minutes after the initially scheduled time, according to NASA.
Thruster failure
The ship could not dock when it only had less than 250 meters left to reach the ISS, since it did not receive authorization to approach due to problems with its thrusters.
Five of these small boosters, out of a total of 28, failed at some point, a commentator explained during NASA’s live broadcast. Eventually, they managed to get four operational, providing the number needed for the operation.
These thrusters are used to make small adjustments to the ship’s trajectory.
Initially, the docking was scheduled for 4:15 p.m. GMT.
Astronauts Wilmore and Williams joined seven people already aboard the ISS and will spend about a week in the orbital laboratory, before returning to Earth inside the Starliner.
jc (afp, ap)
