Boeing Starliner: ready to fly to the International Space Station

0
29
boeing 1 1000x600.jpg
boeing 1 1000x600.jpg

With some delay over the scheduled dates, finally the Boeing Starliner will fly to the International Space Station, which is undoubtedly excellent news. And it is striking that it will almost coincide in time with the first anniversary of the return to Earth of the Crew Dragon after their last test mission, which was the first manned and that left the ISS back to our planet on the second of August 2020.

The unmanned flight, which will take the Boeing Starliner to the station, has finally been authorized by NASA, which considers that the ship already meets all the necessary conditions so that this test can be carried out. In this test, which except for failures, will be the last without a crew, the entire process will be put to the test, from launch to re-entry and landing, which will take place in the desert in the United States, passing of course through the approach and docking. to the space facility.

Remember that about a year and a half ago, in your previous test, the Boeing Starliner failed to reach the correct orbitAlthough despite the poor result, both NASA and Boeing were optimistic about it. At first, the plans were for it to be tried again between the end of last year and January of this year, but various complications have delayed the performance of this new test, which, finally, has a date.

Boeing Starliner: ready to fly to the International Space Station

And we won’t have to wait long, actually, since the launch of the Boeing Starliner is scheduled, in the first instance, to next Friday, July 30 at 8:53 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time). In the event of a problem that prevents the launch, it will be postponed until no earlier than August 3.

SEE ALSO  This is the real reason why Telegram has been blocked

If the test is completed successfully, NASA and Boeing hope that the first manned test can be carried out by the end of the year of the Boeing Starliner. And it is well known that the US space agency has long wanted to have an alternative to SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station. And not because it has any problem with SpaceX, at all, but because it has two systems that allow the transport of astronauts from and to the station.

Although unmanned flights do not generate as much interest as manned flights, in this case we are talking about a key test for a vehicle that could bring astronauts to the station very soon. therefore, both its development and its result are key to the future of research in space.