Watch like today NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test and finally – most likely – explosions on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA should begin broadcasting its coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET his YouTube channelwith the official launch at 10:34 p.m. ET. Spaceship It will carry two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.
We say “probably” because the road so far has not been smooth. Ten years ago, NASA chose Boeing and Space Xi to build spacecraft that would fly from the United States to the ISS for the first time. Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract, while NASA awarded SpaceX $2.6 billion. However, the latter had its own peculiarities First successful crewed flight in 2020 and has repeated it about ten times since then.
Boeing’s Starliner failed to reach orbit during its first unmanned orbital test flight in 2019 due to burning too much fuel. The next flight was planned for August 2021, but was canceled due to a valve problem, Boeing finally reached the ISS in the spring of 2022 with an unmanned spacecraft. Amid glitches in aspects such as the parachute system, two plans for crewed flights came and went. Last August Boeing said these problems should be fixed Until March 2024.
Now, two months after the original goal, Boeing, Williams and Wilmore appear ready to take off. “We are ready, the spacecraft is ready and the teams are ready,” Wilmore told the press. NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free added, “The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone. The lives of our crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, are at stake – and we don’t take that lightly.”
