Boeing is planning to launch its CST-100 Starliner astronaut taxi on a second check flight on March 25, firm officers introduced Monday (Jan. 25).
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch the uncrewed spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station in Florida, after which Starliner will try and rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station (ISS) — one thing the spacecraft did not do throughout its first check flight, referred to as Orbital Flight Take a look at-1 (OFT-1), in December 2019.
The upcoming mission, referred to as Orbital Flight Take a look at-2 (OFT-2), was not initially a part of Boeing’s itinerary when the corporate was creating Starliner for NASA’s Industrial Crew Program. However after a series of glitches prevented OFT-1 from reaching the ISS and prompted an early touchdown in New Mexico, NASA and Boeing decided to redo the uncrewed test flight earlier than launching Starliner with astronauts on board.
Associated: Boeing’s 1st Starliner flight test in photos
The announcement of OFT-2’s goal launch date comes only one week after Boeing’s Starliner passed a key software requalification test, throughout which Boeing groups “carried out a full software program evaluate and a number of other sequence of checks to confirm Starliner’s software program meets design specs,” Boeing officers mentioned in a statement.
“Boeing additionally will full an end-to-end simulation of the OFT-2 check flight utilizing flight {hardware} and ultimate variations of Starliner’s flight software program to mannequin the car’s anticipated conduct earlier than flight,” the assertion added. Boeing had been criticized for not conducting such an “end-to-end” test for OFT-1 again in 2019, when Starliner failed to achieve the proper orbit.
If all goes in keeping with plan with OFT-2, the Starliner spacecraft will carry out an orbit insertion maneuver about 31 minutes after liftoff, sending the spacecraft on its strategy to the ISS, the place it’s anticipated to reach the subsequent day (roughly 26 hours after liftoff).
The Starliner will autonomously dock itself on the house station’s Concord module for a couple of week, throughout which era the seven-person crew of Expedition 64 will unload any cargo on board and examine the spacecraft. (Starliner can spend a number of months in orbit, however this mission might be stored brief as it’s only a check.) As soon as its orbital keep on the ISS is over, Starliner will autonomously undock from the station at return to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in New Mexico.
If Boeing and NASA don’t uncover any extra massive issues with Starliner throughout the OFT-2 mission, the primary Starliner to fly with astronauts on board may observe as early as June. That mission, referred to as Crew Flight Take a look at (CFT), will ship NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Butch Wilmore to the ISS for an prolonged keep. NASA has not introduced the length of the CFT mission, however in 2019 the company said it would be a long-duration mission that might doubtlessly final for round six months.
The primary operational mission to hold astronauts, referred to as Starliner 1, will carry NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada to the ISS for a six-month keep. That mission is tentatively scheduled for no sooner than December 2021, NASA officers said in a statement.
E-mail Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or observe her on Twitter @hannekescience. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.