[ad_1]
Two NASA test pilots took off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the International Space Station, the first to fly the new spacecraft.
Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams’ trip was expected to take 25 hours, arriving Thursday.
They will spend just over a week in the orbiting lab before re-boarding the Starliner for a remote landing in the desert of the western US on June 14.
“Let’s go!” Wilmore shouted minutes before take off.
Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and former space station dwellers — stressed repeatedly before launch that they had every confidence in Boeing’s ability to properly handle this test flight.
Crippled by bad software, the Starliner’s initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA allowed its astronauts to strap on. The repair in 2022 went much better, but later problems arose with the parachute and the flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule.
A small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system also caused a delay, but managers decided the leak was manageable and not a safety concern.
“I know it’s been a long road to get here,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said before the weekend delay.
Boeing was hired along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX a decade ago to transport NASA astronauts to and from the space station.
The space agency wanted two competing US companies for the job after the space shuttles were retired, paying US$4.2 billion ($6.3 billion) to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which redesigned the capsule it used to deliver supply stations.
SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries – Russia, the US and China – have mastered.
It took nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston charter company.
The liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the 100th Atlas V for rocket manufacturer United Launch Alliance. It was the first trip for astronauts on an Atlas rocket since John Glenn’s Mercury era more than 60 years ago; the rocket usually launches satellites and other spacecraft.
Despite Atlas V’s perfect record, a human presence raised the tension for the dozens of NASA and Boeing employees gathered at Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston.
Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon are designed to be fully autonomous and reusable. Wilmore and Williams will occasionally take manual control of the Starliner on their way to the space station to check its systems.
If the mission goes well, NASA will alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for taxi flights starting next year. The backup pilot for that test flight, Mike Finke, will hang on for the next Starliner trip.
“When you have a new spacecraft, you have to learn everything about it, and this was a great exercise,” Finke told reporters late last week.
[ad_2]
