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Boeing plans to launch its CST-100 Starliner astronaut taxi on a second test flight on March 25, company officials said on Monday January 25.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch the unequipped spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida, after which Starliner will attempt to surrender and dock with the International Space Station (ISS) – which the spacecraft failed to do so on its first test flight. , called Orbital Flight Test-1 (OFT-1), in December 2019.
The upcoming mission, called Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), was not originally part of Boeing’s itinerary when the company was developing Starliner for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. But after a series of issues prevented OFT-1 from reaching the ISS and prompted an early landing in New Mexico, NASA and Boeing decided to redo the unmanned test flight before launching Starliner. with astronauts on board.
Related: Pictures of Boeing’s first Starliner flight test
The announcement of OFT-2’s target launch date comes just a week after Boeing’s Starliner passed a key software requalification test, in which Boeing teams “performed a comprehensive software review and several series of tests to verify that Starliner’s software meets design specifications, ”Boeing officials said. in a report.
“Boeing will also perform an end-to-end simulation of the OFT-2 test flight using flight hardware and final versions of Starliner’s flight software to model the expected behavior of the vehicle before flight,” the statement added. Boeing had been criticized for failing to perform such an “end-to-end” test for OFT-1 in 2019, when Starliner failed to reach the correct orbit.
If all goes as planned with OFT-2, the Starliner spacecraft will perform an orbit insertion maneuver approximately 31 minutes after takeoff, sending the spacecraft en route to the ISS, where it is expected to arrive the next day (approximately 26 hours after take-off).
The Starliner will stand alone in the space station’s Harmony module for approximately a week, during which the seven-person Expedition 64 crew will unload any cargo on board and inspect the spacecraft. (Starliner can spend several months in orbit, but this mission will be short because it is only a test.) Upon completion of its orbital stay at the ISS, Starliner will autonomously detach from the station upon return to Earth for an assisted parachute. landing in New Mexico.
If Boeing and NASA no longer discover big issues with Starliner during the OFT-2 mission, the first Starliner to fly with astronauts on board could follow as early as June. This mission, called Crew Flight Test (CFT), will send NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Butch Wilmore to the ISS for an extended stay. NASA has not announced the duration of the CFT mission, but in 2019, the agency said it would be a long-term mission that could potentially last around six months.
The first operational mission to transport astronauts, called Starliner 1, will bring NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada to the ISS for a six-month stay. The mission is tentatively scheduled for no earlier than December 2021, NASA officials said in a statement.
Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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