After years of setbacks and postponements, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is due to take off for the first time on Monday with astronauts on board, heading for the International Space Station, and thus joining the very private club of spaceships that have transported humans.
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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 due to take off on Monday at 10:34 p.m. from Cape Canaveral in Florida (Tuesday 02:34 GMT) aboard the Starliner capsule, which will be propelled into orbit by an Atlas V rocket from the ULA group.
The weather forecast looks very favorable.
AFP
These space veterans, both from the US Navy, have each already visited the ISS twice, aboard a space shuttle then a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
But this time, “everything is new, everything is unique, the ship itself, the way it flies,” emphasized Butch Wilmore. “I don’t think any of us ever dared to dream of being involved in the first flight of a brand new ship,” he said happily.
AFP
For NASA, which ordered this vehicle ten years ago, the stakes are also high: having a second vehicle in addition to that of SpaceX to transport American astronauts “is very important”, underlined Dana Weigel, responsible for the ISS program.
This capacity will make it possible to better respond to “different emergency scenarios”, for example in the event of a problem on one of the vessels, she explained.
Manual piloting
Once in space, the astronauts will temporarily pilot the spacecraft manually, in order to validate the operation of this mode.
Starliner must then dock with the ISS on Wednesday around 05:00 GMT and stay there for a little over a week. New tests will be carried out, then the two astronauts will return with him to Earth.
Getty Images via AFP
The success of this mission would end the ship’s development program on a good note, a saga marked by unpleasant surprises.
In 2019, during a first uncrewed test, the capsule could not be placed on the correct trajectory and returned without reaching the ISS.
Then in 2021, while the rocket was on the launch pad to retry the flight, a problem with blocked valves on the capsule led to another postponement.
The empty ship finally managed to reach the ISS in May 2022.
Getty Images via AFP
From now on, the first flight with crew must make it possible to certify the capsule, so that it can then begin its role as a “taxi” to the ISS.
Boeing had hoped to be able to carry out this first manned flight as early as 2022, but problems discovered late, in particular with the parachutes braking the capsule during its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, had again caused delays.
“There were a number of things that were surprises that we had to overcome,” Boeing executive Mark Nappi said at a news conference. But “it made our teams very strong, and proud of how they overcame each problem.”
“It is quite typical that the development of a space vehicle for humans takes ten years,” he added.
“Embarrassing”
The astronauts, like Boeing and NASA, expect new unforeseen events to punctuate this mission, which aims to detect if there is a grain of sand remaining.
“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.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule had already joined this list in 2020, in the wake of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs.
AFP
Once Starliner is operational, NASA wants to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing flights to transport its astronauts to the ISS.
In 2014, the space agency signed a contract worth 4.2 billion with Boeing and 2.6 billion with SpaceX for the development of these vessels.
“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.”
With the ISS due to be retired in 2030, both Starliner and Dragon could then be used to ferry humans to future private space stations, which several companies are already planning to build
