A few years later than expected, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Friday night.
There were no astronauts inside for this voyage, but it marked a crucial stage that escaped Boeing during a problematic flight test in 2019, when the same unmanned spacecraft failed to reach orbit. The company spent two and a half years fixing a series of technical problems before bringing Starliner back to the launch pad, lagging behind SpaceX, which has since brought five crews to NASA’s space station.
The spacecraft is expected to spend four or five days in the space station before returning to Earth, parachuting to one of five landing sites in the western United States.
Successful completion of the mission could provide NASA with enough confidence to board the astronauts for Starliner’s next flight, which could take place by the end of the year.
Boeing is one of two companies NASA has hired to take astronauts to and from the ISS. The contracts were issued in 2014, three years after NASA withdrew the space shuttles. The agency then had to rely on Russia to transport astronauts for nearly a decade. While SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is currently transporting crews into orbit, NASA’s second transport option offers a reservation in case one of the spacecraft crashes and prevents further reliance on Russia, which became politically complex after the invasion. in Ukraine earlier this year. year.
The day after it was launched from Florida, the Starliner’s nose locked at one of the spaceport’s docking ports at 8:28 p.m. Eastern Time. Its hatch will open on Saturday, allowing astronauts on the space station to begin unloading 800 pounds of cargo, mostly food and supplies.
The launch, the orbital approach and the docking encountered some problems, but not major ones. After Starliner separated from the second stage of the Atlas 5 rocket, which transported it into space, two of the spacecraft’s engines failed during the launch to bring it into stable orbit. Other pushers turned on automatically to compensate. In subsequent shots, the propulsion system worked without a problem and Boeing said in a statement that the problem would not pose a risk to the rest of the flight.
Boeing also reported a problem with the spacecraft’s cooling, although it added that temperatures in the spacecraft remained stable. Other key systems, including navigation, power and communications, worked well, the company said in a statement.
During the journey to the space station, the spacecraft performed a series of maneuvers as it approached the space station.
During its last approach, which lasted several hours, the spacecraft moved slowly and methodically along a carefully choreographed path. He stopped several times and temporarily withdrew, a series of demonstrations of systems designed to prevent an out-of-control spacecraft from colliding with the space station.
He waited 32 feet in front of the space station for an hour due to a last-minute docking system error. After the problem was resolved, the last push from the pushers pushed him into contact with the docking port.
After a successful return from orbit and landing, Boeing will still have additional work, including certification of the spacecraft’s parachutes, before NASA approves Starliner to transport astronauts. An independent safety council, overseen by NASA, expressed concern last week that Boeing did not have enough people working on the program.
“The panel will monitor the situation in the near future to see what impact, if any, this could have on the existence or mitigation of any security risks,” said David B. West, a member of the Security Council.
After a demonstration mission with a crew that took two of NASA’s three astronauts to the space station, Starliner will begin regular operations, bringing crews of four into orbit. NASA predicts that SpaceX and Boeing will carry out one crew mission per year.
However, Boeing will not be able to engage in business outside of NASA like SpaceX, launching two private mission missions into orbit last year. On the one hand, the Boeing vehicle is significantly more expensive. In 2019, a NASA inspector general estimated that NASA paid $ 90 million for each Starliner site, while a space site in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon cost $ 55 million.
In addition, Boeing does not have access to the missiles needed to fly Starliner missions beyond what NASA requires. The spacecraft is currently launched on an Atlas 5 rocket built by the United Launch Alliance. But the Atlas 5 is powered by Russian RD-180 engines. In 2016, Congress decided to demand the phasing out of the RD-180. Boeing has enough Atlas 5 rockets to meet its obligations to NASA – a test flight with a crew and six operational flights – but no more.
Starliner can fly other missiles, including Vulcan, the successor to Atlas 5. But Vulcan, which has not yet made its first flight, is not approved for crew missions.
But Boeing officials said they expect Starliner to be more widely used in the future, including a private space station called Orbital Reef, which the company is building with two other companies, Sierra Space and Blue Origin, a rocket company founded by Jeff. Bezos from Amazon.
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