Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is due to take off on Monday with two astronauts on board. The ship must join the International Space Station (ISS) and perhaps enter the very private club of spaceships that have transported humans.
Boeing is playing big on this final test mission, which should allow it to demonstrate that its ship is safe before starting regular missions to the Space Station (ISS), already four years behind SpaceX. American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are scheduled to take off this evening from Cape Canaveral aboard the Starliner capsule, which will be propelled into orbit by an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) group.
The launch is scheduled for Monday, May 6. Starliner will dock at the forward-facing port of the ISS Harmony module on May 8 at 12:46 a.m. The two astronauts have one week to complete tests that will allow NASA to certify the spacecraft for rotation missions between the Earth and the ISS.
• Are Starliner and Dragon competitors?
Yes and no. These programs were launched in 2014 with two contracts awarded by NASA for the construction of vessels intended to transport humans into space. The first with Boeing reached $4.2 billion. The one with SpaceX was $2.6 billion.
In this race, Boeing was obviously the big favorite, but nothing went as planned. The American giant was defeated by the newcomer in the race for stars. Dragon V2, Elon Musk’s reusable spacecraft, succeeded in 2021. For the first time since the last flight of the space shuttle in July 2011, astronauts will be launched from the United States.
“Everyone thought Boeing was going to get there first,” Erik Seedhouse, associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University, recalled to AFP.
“That SpaceX succeeded well before Starliner was very embarrassing for Boeing.”
Boeing is playing big on this final test mission, which should allow it to demonstrate that its ship is safe before starting regular missions to the Space Station (ISS), already four years behind SpaceX.
• What is the mission of this flight?
NASA’s first goal with this program is to end dependence on Russian Soyuzes by creating their own space taxi. Starliner’s crewed flight will allow NASA to certify the capsule for transporting humans into space.
The ship is controlled by software capable of supporting phasing, docking, undocking and landing. But on board, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two drivers, will not be passive. Their mission is to manually take control of the ship to validate the operation of this mode. They will have to dock with the ISS on Wednesday around 05:00 GMT and stay there for a little over a week for other tests before returning to Earth.
The stakes are high and time is running out. The ISS must be retired in 2030, Starliner like SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will then have to transport crews to private space stations, which several companies are already planning to build.
• Who are the astronauts?
The astronauts are Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. On their suit, They will display the Starline Crew Flight Test patch which symbolizes “the ambition of the flight test mission, the importance of partnership and the adventurous spirit of the first Starliner crew”.
These two American pilots from the US Navy are space veterans. They have already visited the ISS twice, aboard a space shuttle and then a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. This will be the third mission for both of them aboard the International Space Station.
Barry Wilmore has logged 178 days in space. He was trained to become the commander of the Crew Flight Test mission. Sunita Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space missions. She trained to become a pilot for the Crew Flight Test mission aboard the Starliner.
If their experience is recognized, this new mission remains a new experience for these two astronauts. “Everything is new, everything is unique, the ship itself, the way it flies,” Butch Wilmore emphasized. “I don’t think any of us ever dared to dream of being involved in the first flight of a brand new ship.”
“In the history of American spaceflight, this will be only the sixth time that NASA astronauts will fly in a new spacecraft,” said Jim Free, associate administrator at NASA.
• Why these delays for Starliner?
In 2019, during a first uncrewed test, the capsule could not be placed on the correct trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS.
In 2021, while the rocket was on the launch pad to retry the flight, a problem with blocked valves on the capsule again led to a postponement.
In May 2022, the empty ship finally managed to reach the ISS. Boeing hoped to achieve the first manned flight that same year, but several problems, notably with the parachutes intended to slow down the capsule during its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, caused further delays.
“It is quite typical that the development of a space vehicle for humans takes ten years,” declared Mark Nappi, manager at Boeing, at a press conference, noting that these hazards have “made our teams very strong, and proud of how they overcame each problem.
