Boeing tries to be the 2nd company to launch astronauts into orbit; follow live – 05/06/2024 – Mensageiro Sideral

This Tuesday (7), Boeing could become the second company in the world to take astronauts to orbit in its own vehicle, after competitor SpaceX. The Starliner CST-100, a capsule developed by the company to fulfill NASA’s space transport order, should depart at the end of the night, from platform 41 of the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, driven by the renowned (and in the process of to retire) Atlas 5 rocket. Follow live with Mensageiro Sideral, starting at 11:20 pm.

The launch could have started on Monday night, but a technical problem faced by the team with the rocket’s second stage forced a postponement. If it is not possible to launch this Tuesday, there are dates reserved for Friday and Saturday.

The spacecraft has on board Barry Eugene Wilmore, as commander, and Sunita Williams, as pilot, both veteran astronauts with two space flights. Williams, by the way, becomes with this launch the first woman to fly on an inaugural mission of a new orbital vehicle. Starliner should dock with the International Space Station (ISS) the day after launch and return to Earth after approximately eight days, around the 15th.

NASA and Boeing’s expectation is that everything goes well and Starliner is certified to carry out routine flights taking astronauts to the ISS, generating the desired redundancy to preserve access to space even if one of the suppliers has specific problems. But judging by the recent past, this is far from guaranteed.

TROUBLED DEVELOPMENT

It was in 2014 that the American space agency formalized its first contracts for the then new manned commercial program, in which it only contracts the transport service, leaving operations in the hands of private companies. Two companies were selected in this first wave: SpaceX (for US$ 2.6 billion) and Boeing (for US$ 4.2 billion). Both had the same original order: to develop a crew transport vehicle, carry out an unmanned test flight and then one with astronauts on board, before being certified for regular transport (with new missions to be contracted by NASA).

Originally, the first launch of both was expected in 2017, but, with cuts to the program, they were delayed. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was the first to gain space, in March 2019, in an unmanned flight that successfully docked with the ISS and returned, demonstrating the system’s viability. The company still had a serious problem when, in a test of the post-return capsule, the activation of the retrorockets led to the destruction of the vehicle. But it was possible to identify the source of the failure and correct it quickly for the following capsules.

At the end of that same year, it was Starliner’s turn – but the launch ended in fiasco. A problem with the ship’s internal clock caused it to fire its thrusters anomalously and enter the wrong orbit, preventing a rendezvous with the space station. The capsule narrowly avoided re-entering the atmosphere prematurely, which could have caused the loss of the vehicle – something not exciting for what is expected from a spacecraft designed to transport people. The return took place just two days after the launch, in a controlled manner, on December 22nd.

Boeing then decided to carry out a second unmanned test flight, at no additional cost to NASA. The capsule was prepared and the launch scheduled for March 2021, but several problems affected its completion, including defective valves in the propulsion system – discovered only when the capsule was ready to fly, on the platform –, which ended up postponing the flight for May 2022.

In the meantime, SpaceX made its first manned flight with the Crew Dragon, in May 2020, and began carrying out regular flights to the ISS with four crew members in November of that year. This made Elon Musk’s company the first in history to launch astronauts into orbit and returned this capability to the US, lost since 2011 with the retirement of NASA’s space shuttles.

To date, SpaceX has launched eight regular missions to the ISS (the most recent in March this year), in addition to some commercial flights for clients such as the company Axiom and billionaire Jared Isaacman, who carried out the first 100% private mission to orbit in 2021. Boeing, despite originally being seen as the safest bet in NASA’s commercial program, ended up being just the most expensive – and still needs to prove itself. That’s what’s at stake in this Monday’s mission.

The turbulence in Starliner’s development comes in the wake of a series of failures in Boeing’s aviation segment, most notably problems with the 737 Max model, which led to several fatal accidents and shed light on several of the company’s quality control failures. In the past, it was considered a jewel of American industry. Today, there are doubts about what its role will be in the future of the air and space segments. The Starliner flight could be a turning point in trying to recover lost prestige. If successful, the U.S. for the first time will have two independent private providers for human spaceflight, as Boeing plans to begin regular human flights to the ISS in 2025.

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