After a first takeoff attempt canceled at the last moment in early May, second test: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on Saturday, with astronauts on board for the first time.
Takeoff is scheduled for Saturday at 12:25 p.m. from Cape Canaveral in Florida (4:25 p.m. GMT), with favorable weather forecast.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two space veterans, make up the crew. The Starliner capsule will be propelled into orbit by an Atlas V rocket from the ULA group.
Ten years ago, NASA ordered two new vehicles from the American companies Boeing and SpaceX to transport its astronauts to the Space Station (ISS), in order to no longer depend on Russian vessels.
If SpaceX has already been playing this role of space taxi for four years, the giant Boeing has experienced a series of setbacks leading to years of delay.
Already shaken by security problems on its planes, the group is staking its reputation on this test mission, which must serve to demonstrate that its ship is safe before starting regular missions to the ISS.
For NASA, the stakes are also high: having a second vehicle would allow it to better manage possible emergency situations.
“Little leak”
At the beginning of May, the two astronauts were already installed on board when takeoff was canceled. The reason: a problem with a valve on the rocket, which has since been changed.
A small helium leak was then discovered on one of the ship’s thrusters. But Boeing and NASA decided not to repair it, which would require dismantling Starliner.
“We really think we can manage this leak, by observing it before takeoff, and then even if it grows in flight,” Steve Stich, head of the commercial human spaceflight program at NASA, said Friday.
These setbacks were just the latest in a series of unpleasant surprises.
In 2019, during a first uncrewed test, the spacecraft could not be placed on the correct trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS. Then in 2021 a problem with blocked valves on the capsule led to the postponement of a new attempt.
The empty vehicle finally managed to reach the ISS in May 2022.
Other problems subsequently discovered, notably with the parachutes braking the capsule during its return to the atmosphere, again caused delays until this first manned flight.
Urine pump
Starliner is due to dock with the ISS around 5:50 p.m. GMT on Sunday and stay there for a little over a week, before bringing its two passengers back to Earth.
Butch Wilmore, 61, and Suni Williams, 58, have already been to the ISS twice, each aboard the former American space shuttle and then a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
But this time it is about testing a brand new vehicle, this example of which has been named Calypso, in homage to Commander Cousteau’s ship. Both came from the American Navy, they actively participated in its development.
Once in space, astronauts must temporarily switch to manual piloting to test this mode.
The ship also carries with it equipment added at the last minute: enough to repair the system allowing the astronauts’ urine to be recycled into water.
A pump suddenly stopped working this week, and urine must be stored on board in the meantime, but these capacities are limited.
Handful of vessels
Only a handful of American ships have carried astronauts in the past.
After the shutdown of the space shuttles in 2011, NASA astronauts had to travel aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
It is to put an end to this dependence that in 2014, the American space agency signed a contract of 4.2 billion dollars with Boeing and 2.6 billion with SpaceX for the development of new vessels.
To everyone’s surprise, SpaceX largely beat Boeing by transporting its first astronauts to the ISS in 2020.
Once Starliner is operational, NASA wants to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing flights to transport its astronauts.
After the retirement of the ISS in 2030, the two vessels could be used to transport humans to future private space stations, on which several American companies are already working.