‘Starliner’ finally launches, taking two astronauts to the International Space Station

Boeing’s Starliner, the crewed spacecraft that is competing with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in the race to establish regular trips to space for NASA, took off this Wednesday at 10:52 a.m. local time from the Cape Canaveral facilities after two postponements, the last one of which took place just three minutes before ignition. The spacecraft, powered by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, is carrying the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will stay for a week before returning to Earth.

US Navy Captain Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams had remained on standby after the first cancellation of the flight on May 6, when a failure was detected in the launcher’s oxygen pressure regulation valve. After the ULA repaired the device, during pre-launch tests a helium leak was detected in the Starliner service module, which required further testing. Finally, the operation was scheduled for last Saturday, but a problem in the power supply for the computer cards that control the launcher forced a suspension just 180 seconds before takeoff. The failure was repaired on Sunday.

Boeing’s Starliner is part of the NASA program that aims for private companies to develop permanent services for transporting people and cargo to the ISS. The capsule has a height of five meters and a diameter of 4.6. It is designed to be reused up to 10 times and carry up to seven people on each trip, although the missions planned by NASA for this commercial transportation program do not exceed five crew members per trip.

The two astronauts are veteran pilots of the US Armed Forces and each has already traveled to the ISS on two occasions. Wilmore has expressed confidence in the mission, which he described as a test but safe. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t,” said the pilot on behalf of both crew members.

During the flight, in-orbit tests will be carried out on the performance of the life support system, the manual and automatic control of the ship and other critical elements before docking with the ISS. After a week on the station, the astronauts are scheduled to land in the southwestern United States. Starliner will descend with the help of an improved parachute system after problems were detected in the deployment system and the glass fiber ribbons it includes. These deficiencies forced the first postponement on July 21.

Boeing has already successfully launched two uncrewed missions. During the last one, on May 19, 2022, the CST-100 Starliner ship docked with the ISS the next day, stayed for four days and finally landed in New Mexico.

The cost of NASA’s contract with Boeing to develop Starliner was signed 10 years ago for $4.2 billion, an amount that has been periodically reviewed and has been raised to $4.5 billion.

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