Finally, the successful launch of Boeing’s crewed Starliner

Nothing went wrong this time.

After years of delays, malfunctions and two failed attempts in the past month, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner finally launched its crewed test flight Wednesday morning from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida.

In the hours before takeoff, the usual rituals seemed almost casual.

Once again, Mission Commander Butch Wilmore and Mission Pilot Suni Williams played cards until Wilmore lost before heading to the launch pad. For the third time, they handed out orange roses to family, friends and colleagues waiting next to the “Astro-van” that would transport them to the launch pad. The extracts from Top Gun: Maverick performed once again, as the astronauts requested.

A bright blue sky shone above us and the cumulus clouds that threatened to force a third mission (because launching through the cumulus clouds could see the spacecraft struck by lightning) held off.

Everything went off without a hitch, a nice change, shall we say, for Boeing’s Starliner, which was supposed to have completed this crewed test flight in 2017, as we previously reported.

The helium leak that caused weeks of delays after the first attempt was canceled on May 6 was ongoing but “acceptable for flight today,” according to NASA spokeswoman Brandi Deane.

NASA, Boeing and ULA officials also determined what triggered the automatic jam Saturday, canceling that launch attempt less than four minutes before liftoff. (After the launch was canceled, NASA and ULA engineers discovered that the problem was with a ground power supply located in one of three redundant chassis that powers the computer boards which in turn , control various system functions, including stable refueling valves that keep the Centaur booster filled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen All three chassis must function properly for the launch to move forward, a safety measure for. the crew.)

So today the clock continued to count down. After five minutes, Wilmore recounted how he and Williams noticed the American flags everyone was waving at them as they walked toward the launch pad, as well as the flag on the rocket itself.

“It represents unity, resilience and unified efforts for the common good, and that is what Suni and I have witnessed over the past month, each of you displaying what the forefather of this nation envisioned,” he said. -he declared, speaking quickly. “Suni and I are honored to share this dream of spaceflight with each of you. So with that… let’s go ahead and put some fire in that rocket and push it to the heavens, where all those tough Americans have been preparing it.

As the countdown reached zero, the Atlas V rocket stacked beneath Starliner ignited as planned and a jet of fire erupted from the bottom of the 172-foot-tall ship as plumes of smoke and steam rose. escaped from the launch pad, lifting Starliner. , and his test team soar into the sky.

Over the next half hour, everything went smoothly. The Atlas V boosters separated when they were supposed to. The Centaur upper stage fired at just the right time, giving the spacecraft the boost it needed to reach orbital speeds. About a quarter of an hour later, four of the Starliner’s orbital maneuvering and altitude control (OMAC) engines intended for orbital insertion ignited, and then orbital ascent was accomplished.
Williams and Wilmore are expected to reach the ISS on Thursday at 11:15 p.m. (CST).
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So Boeing’s crewed spacecraft finally embarked on the final test it must pass before NASA approves it for regular crewed spaceflight, that of carrying a crew to and then from the Station international space. If the return trip goes smoothly, NASA will likely approve Starliner as the federal space agency’s other option for transporting our astronauts from American soil to the ISS and back.

You can almost feel the collective blood pressure of Boeing’s commercial space arm dropping now that Starliner is in the air. The company signed a $4.2 billion contract with NASA to build one of two commercial spacecraft intended to carry astronauts into space in 2014, but a decade later the project, plagued by delays and malfunctions, was years behind schedule and cost Boeing more than a billion dollars. , so far.