Achi news desk-
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. –
After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is about to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.
This is the first flight of the Boeing Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will look at the spacecraft during the test drive and a week’s stay in the space station.
NASA turned to US companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttle was retired. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made nine taxi flights for NASA since 2020, while Boeing has managed just a pair of empty test flights.
Boeing program manager Mark Nappi wishes Starliner was further along. “There’s no doubt about that, but we’re here now.”
The company’s long-awaited astronaut display is set to go up on Monday night.
Provided this proposal goes well, NASA will alternate between Boeing and SpaceX to take astronauts to and from the space station.
A look at the newest ride and its rocking ride:
The capsule
White with black and blue trim, the Boeing Starliner capsule is about 10 feet (three meters) tall and 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter. It can fit up to seven people, although four will typically be NASA crews. The company settled on the name Starliner almost a decade ago, a twist on the name of Boeing’s early Stratoliner and the current Dreamliner.
No one was aboard Boeing’s previous two Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, was hit by software problems so severe that its empty capsule could not reach the station until the second attempt in 2022. Then last summer, it picked up weak parachutes and flammable tape that needed to be installed or removed.
The crew
Former NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They joined the test flight after the original crew bowed out as delays mounted. Wilmore, 61, is a former fighter pilot from Mount Juliet, Tenn., and Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Mass. The duo have been involved in the development of the capsule and insist that Starliner is ready for prime time, otherwise it would not strap in for the launch.
“We’re not putting our heads in the sand,” Williams told The Associated Press. “Certainly, Boeing has had its problems. But we are the QA (quality assurance). Our eyes are on the spaceship.”
The flight test
Starliner will blast off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the US Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will be the first time astronauts have ridden an Atlas since NASA’s Project Mercury, starting with John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Sixty-two years later, this will be the 100th launch of Atlas V, and used to lift satellites as well as spaceships.
“We are extremely careful with every mission. We are very, very persistent, very careful” with human missions, said Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Starliner should reach the space station in about 26 hours. The eyes of the seven inhabitants of the station will be on the approaching capsule. The arrival of a new vehicle is “a very big deal. You leave nothing to chance,” NASA astronaut Michael Barratt told the AP from orbit. Starliner will remain docked for eight days, paying off before landing in New Mexico or somewhere another in the American West.
Starliner against the Dragon
Both companies’ capsules are designed to be self-contained and reusable. This Starliner is the same that made the first test flight in 2019. Unlike the SpaceX Dragons, Starliner has traditional hand controls and switches alongside touchscreens and, according to the astronauts, is more like to NASA’s Orion capsules for lunar missions. In short, Wilmore and Williams will take manual control to deploy the systems on their way to the space station.
NASA gave Boeing, a longtime space contractor, more than US$4 billion to develop the capsule, while SpaceX got US$2.6 billion. SpaceX was already in the station delivery business and had just redesigned its cargo capsule for a crew. While SpaceX uses the boss’s Teslas to get astronauts to the launch pad, Boeing will use a more traditional “astronaut” with a video screen that Wilmore said will play “Top Gun: Maverick.”
One big difference at the end of the flight: Starliner lands on the ground with airbags, while Dragon splashes into the sea.
The future
Boeing has committed to six Starliner missions for NASA after this one, which will take the company to the planned end of the station in 2030. Boeing’s Nappi is reluctant to discuss other potential customers until this first crewed flight over. But the company has said that a fifth seat will be available for private clients. From time to time SpaceX sells seats to deacons and even countries that want to get their citizens to the station for a few weeks.
Coming soon: Sierra Space’s small shuttle Dream Chaser, which will deliver cargo to the station later this year or next, before accepting passengers.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department is assisted by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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