Two and a half years after an initial orbital flight test fell short, Boeing will try, try again to put its CST-100 Starliner space capsule through an uncrewed trip to the International Space Station and back.
If the test is successful, starting with today’s 6:54 p.m. ET (3:54 p.m. PT) launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, that could open the way for Starliner’s first crewed flight later this year.
NASA will stream video coverage of the countdown starting at 6 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT).
Boeing has received billions of dollars from NASA to develop Starliner as an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for sending astronauts into orbit.
The hope was that the gumdrop-shaped capsule could start carrying NASA astronauts in 2020, around the time that Crew Dragon had its first crewed flight. But Starliner’s first uncrewed flight test in December 2019 failed to reach its intended orbit, due to a glitch in an automated timing system.
After Starliner’s landing, investigators found more than 60 corrective actions that needed to be taken. Boeing set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to make the fixes and geared up for a do-over last August. But a valve problem forced a last-minute postponement of the reflight, known as Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT-2.
It took months to fix the problem and get ready for today’s OFT-2 launch attempt.
The flight plan follows the course that was intended for the first test in 2019: After reaching orbit, Starliner will catch up with the space station for an automated rendezvous a day after launch. Even though this is primarily a test mission, the capsule will deliver more than 500 pounds of cargo, including food, provisions and personal items for the crew.
After five to 10 days of checkouts, Starliner would unhook from the space station and descend to a touchdown in the western U.S., aided by parachutes and airbags. White Sands Missile Range is the primary landing site, with backup sites in Arizona, Utah and California.
NASA and Boeing will analyze data from the mission before determining the timing for the Crew Flight Test, or CFT for short.
This time around, Starliner’s only occupant is a sensor-equipped mannequin nicknamed Rosie the Rocketeer. But three living, breathing NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore, Mike Fincke and Suni Williams — are already waiting in the wings and watching to see what happens to Rosie.
“We are more than thrilled to be here,” Wilmore told reporters during a pre-launch news briefing. “We’re also very, very jealous, because this is human spaceflight, and Rosie the mannequin is the one that gets to take the trip instead of us.”
from GeekWire https://www.geekwire.com/2022/watch-nasa-launch-boeings-starliner-space-taxi-on-second-test-mission-aiming-for-space-station/