Boeing’s second chance at repurposing has been successfully launched as Starliner, its space taxi, launched into orbit on Thursday.
The spacecraft was built for NASA to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. But before it can do that, it has to make a test flight without astronauts to show that its systems are all working properly.
“Today feels really good and we have a lot of confidence in the vehicle,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for the commercial crew program at Boeing, at a press conference a few hours after the launch.
Two thrusters failed during a maneuver to bring Starliner into stable orbit, but the spacecraft was able to auto-align with the remaining thrusters and set course. Engineers investigate what went wrong.
Two previous attempts to undertake that preparatory trip – the first in December 2019 and the second in August 2021 – were both marred by serious technical difficulties. The setbacks have also cost Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Boeing is catching up with SpaceX, the newer space company founded by Elon Musk that has already put five NASA crews into orbit in the past two years.
A second transportation option for NASA also provides resilience in the event that one of the spacecraft has an accident.
Otherwise, NASA would have to rely again on Russia’s Soyuz capsules, which have been the only ride to orbit for American astronauts for nearly a decade. Cooperation between the United States and Russia on the space station has become politically complicated after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
At 6:54 PM Eastern time, the engines of an Atlas 5 rocket roared from a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, lifting Starliner to the sky. Thirty-two minutes later it was safely in orbit.
Thursday’s launch was a relief for Boeing and NASA officials. The countdown and launch went off without any unpleasant surprises. The only failure occurred during the initial firing of Starliner’s thruster, which was needed to give the spacecraft its final push into Earth orbit.
At the rear of the spacecraft are four pods, each containing a cluster of three thrusters. For the orbital insertion maneuver, which lasted about 40 seconds, one thruster started firing into each pod.
In one of the pods, the thruster started firing and stopped after a second, Mr. nappy. The Starliner’s flight control system switched to a second thruster in the same pod.
“It fired for about 25 seconds and then went out,” said Mr. nappy. “Again, the flight control system took over and did what it was supposed to do. It went to a third thruster and we had a successful orbital insertion.
Even if the third thruster in that pod failed, Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said, “I suspect we’ll be able to complete the mission just fine with the remaining clusters.”
Engineers will see if they can get the faulty thrusters working again, and Mr Nappi said the other systems on Starliner appear to be working fine.
“So the spacecraft is in excellent shape,” he said.
Just over 24 hours after launch, Starliner will go to the International Space Station.
Although this mission does not carry astronauts, one of Starliner’s seats is filled by a mannequin named Rosie the Rocketeer.
There is also over 800 pounds of cargo on board, mainly food and supplies for the space station crew, as well as some memorabilia. The spacecraft is to return nearly 600 pounds of cargo from the space station.
After four or five days of being attached to the space station, Starliner returns to Earth, at one of five locations in the western United States. While most US astronaut capsules have splashed into the ocean — including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — Starliner parachutes ashore and goes on top of airbags.
If all goes well, the flight will provide NASA with enough data to certify that the spacecraft can safely take people into space. A demonstration flight with two or three astronauts on board could start by the end of the year.
During the first unmanned test flight in December 2019, problems started almost immediately upon reaching orbit.
Due to a software error, the Starliner’s clock was set to the wrong time. That caused the onboard computer to attempt to move the spacecraft to where it thought the ship should be. Firing the thrusters used up much of the propellant and plans to dock Starliner at the space station were called off.
In solving that problem, Boeing engineers discovered a second flaw that would have caused the wrong thrusters to fire as the capsule prepared for reentry, potentially leading to the destruction of the spacecraft. They fixed that software bug while Starliner was in orbit, and the capsule landed safely in White Sands, NM
Those issues blocked what would have been the next step: a demonstration flight with astronauts on board. NASA told Boeing to repeat the unmanned test flight, at Boeing’s expense.
Boeing spent more than a year revamping and retesting the software, and last August Starliner was back on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, atop a second Atlas 5 rocket.
The countdown started, but had to be stopped. Flight managers found that 13 valves in Starliner’s propulsion system did not open.
Boeing then spent about eight months investigating the corrosion that had caused the valves to stick. Boeing swapped the service module — the piece of Starliner beneath the capsule that houses the propulsion system — with one planned for the next mission.
NASA hired two companies to transport astronauts to and from the station: SpaceX and Boeing. During Boeing’s 2019 test flight, it looked like Starliner would beat SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule for its first astronaut mission.
But while Starliner remains on the ground, SpaceX has since launched seven Crew Dragon missions with astronauts. In addition to the five missions for NASA, two other civilians went into orbit.
SpaceX’s missions also turn out to be significantly cheaper than Boeing’s. Still, NASA officials say they are committed to Starliner and that having two systems provides competition, innovation and flexibility.
