After several years of delays, Boeing is preparing to launch its orbital flight test of a spacecraft that could eventually be the first American rocket to carry humans into space in nearly a decade.
Barring weather-related delays, the unmanned CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to take off Friday from the space launch complex at Cape Canaveral, Fla. at 5:36 a.m. CST. Starliner, which will carry about 600 pounds of crew supplies and equipment, will dock with the International Space Station Saturday at 7:08 a.m. CST.
The Starliner spacecraft will launch atop the United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V rocket, commonly used for cargo payload missions. Its targeted date for landing is Dec. 28 at 2:48 a.m. CST.
For Boeing, the Starliner flight test comes after years of delays — the first crewed launch was initially planned for late 2017 — amid a tumultuous time for the company. On Monday, Boeing announced that it would suspend production of its 737 Max airplane, which has been grounded worldwide since March after two fatal crashes.
Kathy Lueders, who leads NASA’s commercial crew program, noted the nearly seven years it took for Starliner to get to the launch pad, saying now “it becomes real.”
“Sometimes when we’re in the midst of doing all the work you don’t step back and look at what you’ve accomplished,” Lueders said during a pre-launch briefing Tuesday. “All those discussions, all that hard work, all that verification, working through the analysis, making sure i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, is there in the closeout vehicle ready to go fly.”
Friday’s Starliner flight test is the latest salvo in the race with several other private companies to build a rocket capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from American soil.
The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has been the only way to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2011, when the space shuttle program was shuttered. NASA pays Russia $82 million per seat for a ride on the Soyuz and is currently negotiating with Roscosmos, the country’s space agency, about purchasing additional seats for flights in the fall of 2020 and possibly the spring of 2021 — a contingency plan of sorts in case the American rockets are not ready to carry humans.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has already cleared several safety hurdles, and it completed an unmanned flight test to the space station in March. According to NASA, SpaceX will conduct its in-flight abort test of the Crew Dragon no later than Jan. 4.
Boeing hopes the Starliner flight test will prove to NASA that the years of labor constructing and verifying its spacecraft for launch were worthwhile. The flight test is designed to test every detail of the rocket’s systems, from launch vehicle separation from the Atlas rocket to docking with the space station in low-Earth orbit.
“As important as all of the hardware systems and launch vehicle systems is the integrated performance of the launch to flight and the landing, making sure that we have really sound processes and procedures,” said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager for the Boeing Commercial Crew Program.
A flight test dummy nicknamed Rosie — with a red bandana wrapped around her head, paying homage to the feminist World War II icon Rosie the Riveter — will serve as a stand-in for actual astronauts, monitoring key data such as the G-force experienced during the flight.
The only hurdle left to clear for Friday’s launch is completely out of Boeing or NASA’s control: the weather.
Will Ulrich, launch weather officer for the 45th Weather Squadron, said a cold front moving across the eastern Gulf of Mexico has brought stormy weather to central Florida, but that drier air behind the front should keep any rainfall to a minimum on Friday. The primary concern for the launch will be wind speed — winds below 25 to 30 knots would be optimal.
If the Starliner test goes well, Boeing will refurbish the rocket for a crewed flight test. Astronauts Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada will make that flight.
Pat Forrester, NASA’s astronaut office chief at the Johnson Space Center, called Friday’s flight test a “dress rehearsal, adding Williams sent him to Cape Canaveral with a message to “bring (Starliner) back in good shape.”
As for when that crewed flight test might be scheduled, NASA officials were evasive, noting the relatively full flight manifest in 2020 and the need to pore over data from the orbital flight test before giving a concrete answer.
“Having this demonstration mission is going to be a key part of that (crewed flight) schedule,” Lueders said.
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