Boeing is set to try a new launch of its Starliner capsule, built as part of NASA’s $ 4.2 billion contract, which has so far failed only as its rival SpaceX continues to break the news.
The unmanned flight is scheduled for Thursday, May 19, and follows a series of unfortunate attempts, including a launch in 2019, in which the capsule failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The supply mission aims to demonstrate to NASA that the spacecraft is operating after delays that have accumulated pressure from Boeing in the face of the success of rival SpaceX.
Starliner’s first orbital test in 2019 ended with the capsule failing to meet the ISS due to a software problem, although it successfully landed back on Earth two days later.
Image: In a successful launch, Starliner failed to meet the space station
The next second test flight test without a crew was cleared due to an “unexpected valve” problem caused by humidity and corrosion.
This followed the successful launch of SpaceX for NASA in May 2020, in which astronauts traveled into space from the United States for the first time since the space shuttle program was withdrawn – since the company transported more than 20 people to the ISS.
Both the SpaceX mission and Boeing’s Starliner capsule test are being conducted as part of NASA’s commercial crew program, involving private companies to enable the space agency to send astronauts to the ISS.
“I would say it was a difficult eight months, but it’s very satisfying that we solved the problem,” said program manager Steve Stitch.
Image: NASA intends to take the ISS out of orbit in 2031 and smash it to Earth
NASA plans to smash the ISS in the “spaceship cemetery”
The Merchant Crew Program is part of NASA’s efforts to help the private sector gain a foothold in space by eventually replacing the orbital laboratory with a number of commercial space stations.
Among the companies planning to build commercial destinations is Axiom Space, which – as part of this project – recently launched the first all-private mission to the ISS, using, of course, SpaceX.
In published plans for the future of the ISS, the space agency suggests that the 444,615 kg structure could be taken out of orbit in January 2031 and crashed into a “spaceship cemetery”.
In the ideal scenario, the space station’s orbital altitude will be slowly reduced from its current altitude of 408 km (253 miles).
Image: Point Nemo Spacecraft Cemetery, as seen in Google Earth. Photo: Google
As the height of the ISS falls, it will face an increasingly dense atmosphere, adding more resistance and pulling it even lower.
The space station will still be moving so fast that it will start to heat up and dump debris on the road behind it.
The plan to avoid those debris that damage people or property is to break up the ISS in an uninhabited area in the South Pacific, near Point Nemo.
Point Nemo is called the graveyard of spaceships because – like the point on Earth furthest from any earth – this is where decommissioned spacecraft usually head to when they return to Earth.
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