Boeing’s Starliner spacecra encounters propulsion problems on way to ISS
WASHINGTON: American aerospace giant Boeing's Starliner capsule was heading for the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday, in a critical uncrewed test flight that followed years of failures and false starts.
The spacecraft encountered some propulsion troubles early in its journey, with two thrusters responsible for orbital maneuvering failing for unclear reasons — but Nasa officials said the mission remained on track.
The Orbital Test Flight 2 (OFT2) mission blasted off at 6.54pm Eastern Time (2254 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the spaceship fixed atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
Its success is key to repairing Boeing's frayed reputation a er the first bid, back in 2019, failed to dock with the ISS due to so ware bugs — one that led to it burning too much fuel to reach its destination, and another that could have destroyed the vehicle during re-entry.
A second try was scheduled in August of last year, but Starliner was rolled back from the launchpad to address sticky valves that weren’t opening as they should, and the capsule was eventually sent back to the factory for fixes.
At a post-launch press conference, senior Nasa official Steve Sitch said: "Overall, the spacecra is doing really well," but he also flagged two anomalies that engineers were now working to understand.
The first was that two out of 12 orbital maneuvering and a itude control (OMAC) thrusters located on Starliner's a side had initially fired but then shut down, forcing a third to take up their slack.
The second issue was that a device known as a sublimator responsible for cooling the spacecra was initially slow to get started.
Nasa is looking to certify Starliner as a second ‘taxi’ service for its astronauts to the space station — a role that Elon Musk's SpaceX has provided since succeeding in a test mission for its Dragon capsule in 2020.
Boeing, with its hundred-year history, was considered by many as the sure shot, while thenupstart SpaceX was less proven.
In reality, it was SpaceX that rocketed ahead, and recently sent its fourth routine crew to the research platform — while Boeing’s development delays have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
Starliner should dock with the ISS about 24 hours a er launch, and deliver more than 226 kilogrammes of cargo, including food and provisions such as clothes and sleeping bags for the current crew on the station.