The Boeing astronaut’s capsule reached the International Space Station in an unmanned test after several failed attempts.
With only a test dummy on board, the Boeing astronaut’s capsule pulled and parked on the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time, a huge achievement for the company after years of false starts.
With the arrival of Starliner late Friday, NASA has finally made its long-standing effort to have capsules for a crew of competing US companies flying to the space station.
SpaceX is already launched. Elon Musk’s company conducted the same test three years ago and has since launched 18 astronauts to the space station, as well as tourists.
“Today marks a big milestone,” NASA astronaut Bob Hines of the orbital complex said on the radio. “Starliner looks beautiful in front of the station,” he added.
The only other time Boeing’s Starliner has flown in space, it has never reached the station, ending up in the wrong orbit.
This time, the repaired spacecraft reached the right place after launch on Thursday and docked at the station 25 hours later. The automated rendezvous passed without much difficulty, despite the damage to a handful of pushers.
If the rest of Starliner’s mission goes well, Boeing may be ready to release its first crew by the end of this year. The astronauts, who are likely to serve on Starliner’s first crew, joined the Boeing and NASA flight controllers in Houston as the action unfolded nearly 435 km (270 miles).
NASA wants layoffs when it comes to the Florida-based taxi service for astronauts. Administrator Bill Nelson said Boeing’s long journey with Starliner underscores the importance of having two types of capsules for the crew. US astronauts have been blocked from flying Russian rockets since the end of the shuttle program, until the first flight of the SpaceX crew in 2020.
Boeing’s first Starliner test flight in 2019 was plagued by software bugs that interrupted the mission and could have doomed the spacecraft. They were corrected, but when the new capsule waited to take off last summer, corroded valves stopped the countdown. More repairs followed as Boeing recorded nearly $ 600 million in overcoming costs.
Before allowing Starliner to approach the space station on Friday, Boeing’s ground controllers practiced maneuvering the capsule and testing its robotic vision system. Everything was fine, Boeing said, except for a cooling circuit and four faulty thrusters. However, the capsule maintained a stable temperature and had many other pushing controls.
After Starliner was 15 km (10 miles) from the space station, Boeing’s Houston flight controllers could see the space station through capsule chambers. “We are removing. Can you see us? ”Hines joked.
All that remained of Starliner was silence. The command post was again taken by a model named Rosie the Rocketwoman, a version of the space age of Rosie Kaletetsa from World War II.
The gleaming white-blue capsule hung 10 meters (33 feet) from the station for nearly two hours – significantly longer than planned – while flight controllers adjusted its docking ring and ensured that everything else was in order. When the green light finally came on, Starliner narrowed the gap by four minutes, causing applause at Boeing’s control center. Applause erupted as the locks were firmly in place.
The seven astronauts on the space station will unload Starliner food and equipment and pack it with experiments. Unlike SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which is sprayed off the coast of Florida, Starliner will aim to land in New Mexico next Wednesday.
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