Boeing’s Starliner capsule cleared for launch on ULA Atlas V – “We’re ready to fly” – Yellowhammer News

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Boeing’s Starliner capsule cleared for launch on ULA Atlas V – “We’re ready to fly”

Teams from NASA and Boeing completed the flight readiness review on Thursday for the Starliner space capsule’s upcoming trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

The unmanned Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) flight is expected to be launched from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will give Starliner a boost. The Atlas V was built at the company’s 1.6 million square foot manufacturing facility in Decatur. Boeing’s design center in Huntsville provided all of the structural design for the Starliner, while its Phantom Works division, which has an operation in Huntsville, provided the power systems for the capsule.

Kathy Lueders, Associate Administrator of NASA, announced the completion of the review at a press conference with Boeing officials.

“These are very important reviews where the station and the commercial crew and the Boeing crews really stop and look at the work they’ve done to prepare for this flight,” Lueders said. “After reviewing the team’s data and all parties’ readiness, everyone said ‘OK’ for the launch today and move on to the mission. It was an incredibly detailed review and the team really showed all the work they did to bring us here.

OFT-2 is the last test before Starliner transports its crew into space.

Making Starliner a qualified spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS is essential to the program, according to Steve Stich, director of NASA’s commercial crew program.

“It is very important for the commercial crew program to have two space transportation systems,” he said. “It will be the second of them.”

SpaceX’s Dragon has already qualified for the program and has flown with its crew. He returned to Earth from his last mission to the ISS on July 9.

In an effort to maximize the testing opportunities for this flight, ULA’s Atlas V rocket has been configured in exactly the same way as for crewed flights.

Stich noted that many systems will be tested under OFT-2, including rendezvous and docking systems.

“The Boeing and NASA teams worked side by side to solve many problems in order to meet our requirements,” he said. “We are ready to fly now. It is an exciting time. This mission is the key to crewed flight.

A thorough review of the Starliner’s software and hardware is an ongoing process for Boeing.

“This is not the first day that we are working on preparation,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program director for Boeing’s commercial crew program. “We’ve literally been working on this for months and months. And so it’s really the culmination of hard work by all the teams. “

“We are ready to fly,” he concluded.

A successful OFT-2 will allow NASA and Boeing to move forward with the Starliner’s first crewed mission later this year. NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke have already been selected for the flight to the ISS, a mission that will extend more than two decades of human presence at the orbiting research facility.

In anticipation of their flight, the astronauts actively engaged in the preparation process.

Norm Knight, director of NASA’s Directorate of Flight Operations, gave his take on what OFT-2 will mean for the upcoming crewed flight.

“Space flights are difficult,” he explained. “It’s certainly not easy. I’ll just tell you that the crew greatly appreciate the efforts of NASA, Boeing, and the ULA partnership for safe spaceflight for our astronauts. “

OFT-2 is slated for launch on July 30 and docking to the ISS 24 hours later. It will remain on the ISS until August 5 and return to Earth the same day with a landing in the New Mexico desert.

He will transport goods on both legs of his journey.

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Tim Howe is the owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia



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