Starliner launch: When is Boeing testing its crewed space capsule? – New Scientist

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Joel Kowsky/NASA Photo/Alamy Live News

Boeing is preparing its Starliner spacecraft for its first crewed flight. The capsule has been in the works for more than a decade, andthis historic flight willhelp launch a new era for the US space industry.

Starliner is scheduled to launch on 1 June at 17.25 BST, or 12.25pm local time at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The capsule will ride atop an Atlas V rocket, which has never flown in a crewed mission before.

This mission was scheduled to take off in May, but a faulty valve in the rocket caused a delay. The valve was replaced, but technicians found a helium leak in one of Starliners thrusters. Ultimately, NASA decided the leak was not a problem and set a new launch date. We could handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times, NASAs Steve Stich said during a briefing on 24 May.

NASA will be live-streaming the launch on its website as well as its YouTube channel. The webcast will begin about 4 hours before liftoff. The agency also plans to broadcast Starliner docking with the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 June.

Because this is Starliners first crewed test flight, the goal is simply to get its two passengers to the ISS and back safely. The two astronauts aboard this flight are Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, each of whom has already been to the ISS twice. The plan is for them to stay aboard the ISS for about a week before returning to Earth. Over the course of the mission, the astronauts and their spacecraft technicians on Earth will test Starliners hardware and software to ensure that it will be safe for future missions.

NASA awarded Boeing and SpaceX similar contracts in 2014 to build capsules to shuttle astronauts to and from the ISS. So far, Boeings Starliner has lagged behind SpaceXs Dragon capsule, which made its first crewed flight in 2020. Now, having two travel options to reach the ISS could transform how space flight operates in the US. SpaceX has dominated crewed space flight in the US for years, so this may open up a broader playing field in orbit.

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Starliner launch: When is Boeing testing its crewed space capsule? - New Scientist