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After multiple delays, Boeing’s inaugural launch of Boeing’s Starliner is set to launch on Saturday – and the new spacecraft will carry two ancient astronauts.
Boeing’s Crew Liftoff Flight Test mission is scheduled for 12:25 pm ET from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. If all goes according to plan, the mission will deliver NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station. After eight days, they will return to Earth in the reusable crew capsule, landing at a site in the southwestern United States.
The launch will be broadcast live on NASA’s website on Saturday, with coverage beginning at 8:15 a.m. ET.
If the spacecraft does not lift off as planned atop an Atlas V rocket, backup opportunities are available on June 2, June 5 and June 6, according to NASA.
Williams and Wilmore were in their seats aboard Starliner on May 6, just about two hours from a historic launch when engineers identified a problem with a valve on the second stage, or upper section, of the Atlas V rocket. an entire stack, including the rocket and spacecraft, was rolled back from the pad for testing and repair.
Then, mission teams reported a small leak of helium within the spacecraft service module. The leak was traced to a part called a flange on one reaction control system thruster, where helium is used to allow the propellants to burn and propel the spacecraft.
The space agency said the leak did not pose a threat to a mission, but while evaluating the issue, engineers spotted a “design vulnerability” in the propulsion system — essentially identifying a remote scenario where certain launchers could fail while the vehicle takes off. . Earth orbit, no backup method to get home safely.
NASA and Boeing have since worked with the thruster vendor to find a backup way to do the deorbit burn, should that situation arise, Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a May 24 news conference. .
After a flight readiness review meeting on May 29, leaders from NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance (which built the rocket) confirmed launch readiness, including all the systems, facilities and crews that support the test flight, ” according to NASA.
Williams and Wilmore, who remained in standard crew quarantine to protect their health before the launch attempt, returned to Houston on May 10 to spend time with their families, according to Boeing. While there, the astronauts also practiced for their flight in Starliner simulators, according to NASA.
The duo returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 28, continuing their quarantine at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building before liftoff.
Suni Williams: Already in the history books
Saturday’s launch of the Starliner would mark only the sixth maiden voyage of a crewed spacecraft in U.S. history, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted in a news conference earlier this month.
“It started with Mercury, then Gemini, then Apollo, the space shuttle, then (SpaceX’s) Dragon — and now Starliner,” he said.
For the first Starliner launch, NASA is sticking to a long tradition of staffing the brand new spacecraft with astronauts who previously trained as military test pilots and spent hours flying experimental aircraft.
“They are checking out many of the systems: the life support, the manual control,” said NASA chief executive Bill Nelson during a May 3 news conference. “That’s why we put two test pilots on board – and of course Butch and Suni have a broad resume.”
Williams, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998, will also make history as the first woman to embark on such a mission. And it won’t be her first entry into the history books.
In 2012, during a previous trip to the International Space Station, Williams became the first person to complete a triathlon in space, when she simulated swimming using a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill and she is tied with a harness. ‘t swim away.
That came after she ran the Boston Marathon from the space station in 2007.
Williams – a native of Needham, Massachusetts – has also spent plenty of time outside the space station.
During her previous missions, she logged a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes over seven spacewalks, second among female astronauts.
Before this mission, Williams told reporters that she wasn’t nervous about making the jump from testing aircraft to spacecraft.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s jitters,” she said. “I’m thinking it’s more like last minute checks – crossing the ts dotting the i’s.”
Williams has traveled to space twice before, once on NASA’s space shuttle in 2006 and again on a Russian Soyuz capsule in 2012. She has logged a total of 322 days in space.
Wilmore: ‘You can aspire to do anything’
Meanwhile, Wilmore — a Tennessee native and Navy test pilot — has flown more than 8,000 hours of his life on tactical jets, according to NASA.
Before being selected for NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000, Wilmore was on exchange as a flight test instructor at the Air Force Test Pilot School in California.
As an astronaut, Wilmore has already logged 178 days in space during two separate missions and performed four spacewalks.
Wilmore once recounted a spacewalk experience while giving an acceptance speech for the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award in 2018. (Wilmore played football at Tennessee Technological University as an undergraduate.)
He said that during the spacewalk, he was surprised to find that the radiator on the outside of the space station was reflective, like a mirror.
“Suddenly, for the first time ever, I see myself in a space suit from head to toe. … I look back at that guy and I said, ‘How did you get here?’” Wilmore said. “If you have a pulse, that’s what it takes. You can try anything you want to do.”
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