PostedAugust 25, 2022, 10:58 PM
SpaceThe first manned flight of the Boeing capsule will take off in February
Boeing’s space capsule, Starliner, managed to reach the ISS unmanned last May. The first manned flight will take place in February 2023.
Boeing hoped until recently to be able to make this flight before the end of 2022, but hitches during the vacuum test required adjustments.
AFP
The first manned flight of Boeing’s space capsule, Starliner, will take place in February 2023, the company announced on Thursday and NASA, which wants to establish a second means of transport to the International Space Station (ISS) for its astronauts. These have been traveling since 2020 aboard SpaceX vessels to the ISS, but NASA wants to diversify its options.
After a series of setbacks that delayed Boeing’s program, including a failed flight in 2019, the company finally managed to reach the ISS for the first time last May — unmanned. The company must now carry out a second flight, this time inhabited, so that the spacecraft obtains approval from NASA and can begin regular missions, at an anticipated rate of one per year.
“We are aiming for a take-off date of February 2023,” said Steve Stich, in charge of NASA’s manned commercial program, during a press conference on Thursday. This test flight, called CFT (for “Crew flight test”), will carry two NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams.
“Having two providers”
They should stay about eight days in the ISS, where they will participate in research activities carried out in the flying laboratory, said Joel Montalbano, director of the ISS program. “Our goal as an agency is to have two US commercial providers up and running as soon as possible,” he said.
Boeing was still hoping recently to be able to make this flight before the end of 2022. But hitches during the empty test required adjustments to the vehicle. A problem had been detected in particular in the propulsion system: two thrusters used by the capsule to place itself on the right trajectory after takeoff had not worked.
Boeing teams determined that the problem was caused by “debris”, without being able to identify with certainty where it came from, said Mark Nappi, program manager for the company. The ship was checked to make sure this debris didn’t come from him. Filters were also removed to solve a pressure problem, and software had to be updated to avoid too much data flow.
(AFP)