{"id":24608,"date":"2022-05-19T21:36:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T13:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/starliner-oft-2-launch-makes-it-to-orbit-heading-to-iss\/"},"modified":"2022-05-19T21:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T13:36:05","slug":"starliner-oft-2-launch-makes-it-to-orbit-heading-to-iss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/starliner-oft-2-launch-makes-it-to-orbit-heading-to-iss\/","title":{"rendered":"Starliner OFT-2 launch makes it to orbit, heading to ISS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine months after valve issues caused its previous launch attempt to be scrubbed, Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft has launched on its Orbital Flight Test 2 mission atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Thursday. OFT-2 departed Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral at 6:54:36 p.m. EDT (22:54 UTC), bound for the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Orbital Flight Test 2, or OFT-2, is a repeat of Starliner\u2019s 2019 OFT mission, now also known retrospectively as OFT-1. An uncrewed test of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by Boeing for NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), the original OFT had been intended as the last step before NASA entrusted astronauts to the capsule on a Crewed Flight Test (CFT).<\/p>\n

Due to the original OFT\u2019s failure to complete a number of key objectives, including rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, the OFT-2 mission was added ahead of the first crewed flight.<\/p>\n

An investigation following the first OFT mission identified three serious issues. The most significant was that the Mission Elapsed Timer had polled incorrectly, resulting in the spacecraft not executing its orbit insertion burn at the planned time. This left it unable to reach the space station, even after the burn was eventually commanded manually.<\/p>\n

Starliner had also suffered intermittent space-to-ground communication issues affecting command and control throughout the OFT mission. A software issue with the service module separation sequence was also found during the mission, which could have resulted in a loss of vehicle had it not been identified and fixed before Starliner returned to Earth.<\/p>\n

The reflight, OFT-2, had originally been planned to launch last year, with the spacecraft first rolling out to Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) atop Atlas V AV-082 in preparation for a liftoff at the end of July. This was delayed to August 3rd, in part due to issues at the space station after the arrival of the Nauka module a few days before Starliner\u2019s planned launch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n