A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket ignited for blast off Wednesday at a third attempt to launch Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner crew capsule into orbit for the first manned test flight, a cruise to the International Space Station.
NASA Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams, both former Navy test pilots, entered the capsule around 8 a.m. EDT and completed their checks to await liftoff at 10:52 a.m. of the morning. This is roughly the moment when Earth’s rotation brings the pad into alignment with the space station’s orbit—a requirement for rendezvous missions.
Once in orbit, the astronauts plan to test Starliner’s manual controls before closely monitoring a 25-hour automated rendezvous with the station, approaching from behind and below before coming in to dock at the lab’s forward port at 12:15 p.m. of Thursday. If all goes well, the Starliner and its crew will return to Earth on June 14.
The long-awaited flight marks the first launch of an Atlas 5 with astronauts on board and the first for the Atlas rocket family since astronaut Gordon Cooper lifted off on the last flight of the Mercury program 61 years ago.
It also marks the first pilot flight of Starliner, Boeing’s answer to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, an already operational, less expensive spacecraft that has carried 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and civilians into orbit on 13 flights, 12 of them on the space station, since one initial piloted test flight in May 2020.
NASA ordered two spacecraft from different vendors to ensure uninterrupted transportation to and from the space station even if some kind of problem stopped one company’s shuttle. Despite a larger NASA contract, Boeing’s Starliner is four years behind SpaceX in getting astronauts into space.
But Wilmore and Williams say the spacecraft is now safer and more capable thanks to numerous upgrades and fixes.
“I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. It’s been a bit (of) an emotional roller coaster,” Williams said before the crew’s first attempt at the launch. But, she added, “we knew we’d get here eventually. It’s a solid spacecraft. I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else right now.”
The final push to orbit was hampered by last-minute problems with Atlas 5, the Starliner and a launch pad computer system.
or Test launch on May 6 was derailed by a suspected pressure relief valve in the Centaur upper stage of Atlas 5. The valve was replaced, but concern about a small helium leak in the Starliner’s propulsion system delayed a second attempt until June 1.
of The second time about, problems with one of the three ground computers used to orchestrate the final minutes of the countdown another cleaning. The computer hardware was replaced, paving the way for a third test launch on Wednesday.
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