{"id":11553,"date":"2021-07-22T21:13:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T13:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-clears-boeing-starliner-for-launch-on-second-unpiloted-test-flight\/"},"modified":"2021-07-22T21:13:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T13:13:44","slug":"nasa-clears-boeing-starliner-for-launch-on-second-unpiloted-test-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-clears-boeing-starliner-for-launch-on-second-unpiloted-test-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA clears Boeing Starliner for launch on second unpiloted test flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida\u2019s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 17, 2021. Starliner will launch on the Atlas V for Boeing\u2019s second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) for NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft rolled out from Boeing\u2019s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA and Boeing held a day-long flight readiness review Thursday and cleared the company\u2019s CST-100 Starliner astronaut ferry ship for launch July 30 on a second unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft\u2019s maiden flight in December 2019 was marred by major software problems that prevented a planned rendezvous and docking with the station. Next week\u2019s Orbital Flight Test No. 2, or OFT-2, will test a wide variety of upgrades and improvements intended to clear the way for a piloted flight by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing the team\u2019s data, and the readiness of all the parties, everybody said \u2018go\u2019 for the launch,\u201d said Kathy Lueders, NASA\u2019s director of spaceflight. \u201cTo me, this review was a reflection of the diligence and the passion of this Boeing and NASA team that really chose to learn and adapt and come back stronger for this uncrewed demonstration mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is targeted for 2:53 p.m. EDT next Friday, roughly the moment Earth\u2019s rotation carries pad 41 into the plane of the space station\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, the commercially built, reusable spacecraft will carry out an automated rendezvous with the lab complex, moving in for docking at the Harmony module\u2019s forward port just after 3 p.m. the next day. The ship will depart five days later for parachute descent to touchdown near White Sands, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll test the NASA docking system, we\u2019ll test the rendezvous sensor system,\u201d said Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s commercial crew program manager. \u201cThose things you can test on the ground, in analysis and in testing in simulators, but at some point, you\u2019ve got to go fly those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kathy Lueders, head of NASA\u2019s human spaceflight directorate, participates in the flight Readiness Review Thursday. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past 18 months, he said, \u201cthe Boeing and NASA team have worked side by side to resolve numerous issues, to go through and close out requirements, and we\u2019re really ready to go fly now. So it\u2019s an exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boeing and SpaceX are both under contract to NASA to provide commercial crew capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, ending the agency\u2019s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

Under a $2.6 billion contract, SpaceX has designed and built a crewed version of its Dragon cargo ship that rides into orbit atop the company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket. Boeing\u2019s Starliner is being developed under a $4.2 billion contract and relies on the Atlas 5 for the ride to orbit.<\/p>\n

SpaceX successfully carried out two test flights of its Crew Dragon capsule, one unpiloted and one with a two NASA astronauts on board, and has now launched two four-person crews to the space station for long duration stays.<\/p>\n

Boeing carried out an unpiloted test flight of its Starliner capsule in December 2019, but major software problems and a communications glitch prevented a rendezvous with the station and nearly led to the loss of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

As it was, flight controllers were able to direct the ship to a safe landing, but plans to launch a piloted test flight were put on hold.<\/p>\n

After a lengthy joint review with NASA, a variety of corrective actions were ordered and Boeing eventually opted to launch a second unpiloted test flight to demonstrate the capsule\u2019s readiness to carry astronauts.<\/p>\n

Assuming the flight test goes well, the first crew is expected to fly aboard a Starliner before the end of the year. OFT-2 is a major step in that direction, both for NASA and for Boeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo from the standpoint of how important is this to the Boeing company, this is extremely important,\u201d said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing\u2019s commercial crew program. \u201cThis is a serious and unforgiving business, so we take it very seriously. It\u2019s extremely important to us that we\u2019re successful on this flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the work done over the past 18 months to address shortcomings and implement improvements across the board, \u201cwe are very confident that we are going to have a good flight,\u201d he said. \u201cWill there be some learning? There will absolutely be some learning during this flight. It is a test flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

But lessons learned will \u201chelp us build the safest vehicle we can for the crew flights. So it\u2019s of paramount importance that we have a successful flight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Boeing\u2019s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida\u2019s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 17, 2021. Starliner will launch on the Atlas V for Boeing\u2019s second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}