Boeing's Starliner takes first crewed flight with NASA astronauts
NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test launched Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams Wednesday at 9:52 a.m. CDT from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing's first crewed flight with NASA astronauts, Wilmore and Williams, has been delayed several times, including in May due to a potential issue on its Atlas V rocket. The mission, called NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test, involves a rigorous evaluation of the CST-100 Starliner to see how it performs with humans onboard. This is the last major requirement before NASA can certify the spacecraft for annual trips to the International Space Station. The astronauts will return to Earth under parachutes before landing in the western U.S. They are both astronauts and have previously flown on NASA's space shuttle and Russia's Soyuz capsule.
Opublikowany : 10 miesięcy temu za pomocą Andrea Leinfelder, Staff writer w Travel Science
Boeing’s first crewed flight has been long delayed, including over the past month as Boeing aims to join the ranks of SpaceX that has been ferrying astronauts to the ISS for four years. NASA wants two commercially owned and operated spacecraft so there is always a path to the space station that doesn’t involve Russia.
Wilmore and Williams are expected to reach the International Space Station Thursday and will spend roughly one week there. They will then return to Earth beneath parachutes, with six airbags inflating just before they land in the western U.S.
The mission, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, or CFT, is a rigorous evaluation of the CST-100 Starliner to see how it performs with humans onboard. It’s the last major requirement before NASA can certify the spacecraft for annual trips to the ISS.
On May 6, Wilmore and Williams were inside the spacecraft ready to go when United Launch Alliance detected a valve issue on its Atlas V rocket. The mission was scrubbed and United Launch Alliance replaced the valve. After the countdown was halted, Boeing detected a small helium leak on its spacecraft and found a thruster design vulnerability that, in a very unlikely scenario, could have affected the spacecraft’s ability to come home. Boeing has since determined the helium leak is manageable and not a concern, and it found a solution for the unlikely thruster scenario.
But then a June 1 launch attempt was halted less than 4 minutes before liftoff. One of three redundant computers that oversees the final part of countdown was slow to respond to a command. United Launch Alliance is responsible for these computers and has since replaced a ground power supply to fix the problem.
“I'm not going to say it's been easy,” Williams said during a March news conference. “It's a little bit of an emotional roller coaster as things are getting fixed or you see a couple steps back. But then you see a couple steps forward. We knew we would get here eventually. It’s a solid spacecraft.”
NASA gave Boeing and SpaceX contracts in 2014 to develop commercially owned and operated spacecraft that would replace the agency’s space shuttle that had retired three years earlier. At that time, the agency was dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the International Space Station.
For Wilmore and Williams, they said helping Boeing get to Wednesday’s launch had been a test pilot’s dream. They both graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School before becoming astronauts, and they’d previously flown on NASA’s space shuttle and Russia’s Soyuz capsule.
Williams has worked intensively on Starliner since 2015. Wilmore joined her in 2018. Their input is evident across the capsule, ranging from cushioning in the spacecraft seats to safely landing the spacecraft should something go wrong with the computers.
Wilmore previously said his playlist for liftoff would be “epic” — “if it's in a fight scene, epic scene, flight scene, in ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ it's on my playlist” — and Williams said her playlist would be more attuned to going to the beach or relaxing with family. She said there would be some country Western and pop, including music from Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown.
Wilmore and Williams will spend roughly one week on the International Space Station. Their main focus will be on Starliner — one of the onboard tests involves bringing two space station crew members into the spacecraft to see how its living compartment handles four people — though they’ll also participate in human research studies and can assist with space station maintenance.
Tematy: Aviation, Airlines, Space, NASA