Boeing and NASA launch Starliner space capsule for a rendezvous with International Space Station
Boeing Co. and NASA launched the long-delayed Starliner space capsule for a planned rendezvous with the International Space Station, following two earlier failed attempts for a program that has bedeviled the company and left SpaceX as the only American option for ferrying astronauts.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched the craft, without crew, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:54 p.m. ET Thursday for a day-long cruise to the space station.
The CST-100 Starship is scheduled to arrive about 24 hours later on Friday and plans to test multiple docking technologies that Boeing was unable to perform during a December 2019 flight cut short by software flaws.
Boeing and NASA engineers are exploring why two of the 12 thrusters situated at the aft of the spacecraft failed during a key maneuvering burn, although flight computers quickly switched to other thrusters, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a news briefing hours after the launch. The thrust system is also used in early phases of the Starliner’s approach to the space station and when it de-orbits to commence its return to Earth.
“The system is designed to be redundant and worked as designed, and now the team is working on why we had those anomalies occur,” said Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner manager. Engineers may be able to resolve the thruster issues during the flight, Stich said.
A system that removes heat from the spacecraft interior, called a sublimator, also performed “sluggishly” during the ascent and will be probed, Stich said.
The test flight comes at a critical moment for Boeing, which is trying to overcome years of challenges with Starliner’s development. Boeing has tallied $595 million in extraordinary charges to cover
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
