After long delays, Boeing's Starliner capsule and crew launch into space
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Boeing's Starliner capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Wednesday. It's the first time the capsule, powered by an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance, has flown people. Two NASA astronauts are on board for a day-long trip to the International Space Station. This test flight is years behind scheduled and billions of dollars over budget.MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images / AFP -
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, as they depart the operations and checkout building for the launchpad on Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It's the third trip to space for both of them.MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images / AFP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The third time was the charm.
Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner space capsule lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying two NASA astronauts and reached orbit about twelve minutes later. The crew will spend the next 25 hours racing to catch up to the International Space Station.
The mission marks the first time the commercially-built capsule is carrying humans, with a scheduled docking to the station Thursday around 12:15 p.m. ET, with astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore as commander and Sunita “Suni” Williams serving as mission pilot.
It was the third launch attempt of Starliner. On Saturday, the countdown was halted with less than four minutes left. An issue with the flight computers that control launch was to blame. Launch provider ULA replaced a power supply on the system and cleared it for Wednesday’s launch. It followed a launch attempt last month that was called off due to a misbehaving valve on the Atlas V rocket’s upper stage Centaur.
While fixing that issue, Boeing discovered another: a helium leak. The gas is used in Starliner’s propulsion system. After a review of the data, NASA was confident Boeing could successfully fly the mission.
With all those issues resolved, and Starliner on its way to the space station, it appears this third try is indeed the charm. Now launched, Wilmore and Williams are taking Starliner on its maiden flight, putting the vehicle through its paces ahead of operational missions for NASA. After the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, NASA partnered with two commercial companies -- Boeing and SpaceX -- to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
But Boeing has lagged behind its commercial space transportation counterpart SpaceX, which has flown nine missions for NASA already and another four private flights. An uncrewed Starliner mission in 2019 failed to reach the station, in part due to faulty flight computer code. A re-flight of the launch in 2022 was considered a success by NASA and Boeing, but issues were later discovered in the capsule’s parachute systems.
An analysis also found tape used to manage the hundreds of feet of cabling within the spacecraft was flammable. Boeing fixed those issues and received NASA’s go-ahead to launch the crew
But that first attempt to launch this crewed mission last month was scrubbed due to an issue with the rocket responsible for giving Starliner its big boost into space.
Willmore and Williams will test key systems of Starliner as it docks with the space station, including life support and communication. While the spacecraft can essentially fly itself, the duo will test out manual controls of the vehicle as it approaches the orbiting outpost.
The crew will spend about a week aboard the station with a scheduled landing under a canopy of parachutes in the southwest U.S. Teams at NASA and Boeing will comb through the data from this flight before certifying the vehicle for operational mission. NASA plans to split astronaut flights between Boeing and SpaceX, with trips to the I.S.S. happening about every six months.
Transcript
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
History was made today at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Boeing's Starliner space capsule lifted off with its first-ever human crew. This launch is years behind schedule, plagued by engineering and technical issues. But now that it is safely in space, this critical test flight is key to NASA's efforts to help transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, as Central Florida Public Media's Brendan Byrne explains.
BRENDAN BYRNE, BYLINE: It took three tries, but finally, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched atop an Atlas V rocket, taking Boeing's space capsule on its maiden flight with people.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Three, two, one, ignition...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: ...And liftoff of Starliner, an Atlas V, carrying two American heroes drawing a line to the stars for all of us.
BYRNE: It's not the crew's first mission. The two are seasoned NASA astronauts who have worked on the space station before, and they're excited to return to their orbital home away from home. But this trip will be no joyride for them, says their boss, NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BILL NELSON: Now Butch and Sonny do what they do best. They're test pilots, and they're going to test this thing from izzard to gizzard.
BYRNE: One minor issue has popped up already. Starliner's cooling system used more water than anticipated. There's a backup, and engineers say this is why they test. And that includes evaluating the environmental control system and displays in the spacecraft. While Starliner can essentially fly by itself, the astronauts will manually fly the spacecraft as it approaches the space station tomorrow. Boeing's Mark Nappi says, while today's launch was a critical step in this test mission...
MARK NAPPI: Launch is just the first part of this. We now have to get to ISS. We have to dock. We have to do docking ops. We have to undock. We have to do reentry, and we have to land.
BYRNE: The program is vital for NASA to ferry astronauts to the space station. After the space shuttle retired in 2011, NASA teamed up with Boeing and SpaceX to provide astronaut transport. SpaceX completed its crude space flight mission four years ago and since then has flown eight additional missions for NASA. If Starliner is certified after this flight, NASA would then have two providers, allowing the agency to rotate launches between SpaceX and Boeing.
LAURA FORCZYK: And it's important to have two.
BYRNE: Laura Forczyk is a space industry analyst and executive director of Astralytical.
FORCZYK: And so if you have a problem with one of the vehicles, you need to make sure you have another system flying, and that's what this is. This is another system flying.
BYRNE: Once Wilmore and Williams dock with the station, they'll join seven other crew members. Space Station manager Joel Montalbano says he made sure they're ready for visitors.
JOEL MONTALBANO: I said, hey, you know, turn the porch light on, print out the Wi-Fi password and set the table for two more for dinner.
BYRNE: It'll be a quick trip for the Starliner crew, about a week before having to say goodbye and return home under a canopy of parachutes in the Southwest U.S.
For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne at the Kennedy Space Center.
(SOUNDBITE OF AV HAMILTON AND HIJNX SONG, "DOWN!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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