Boeing's new astronaut taxi has safely returned to Earth, completing its long-awaited and critical demonstration quest to the International Space Station. On Wednesday, the US space agency and aerospace giant Boeing touched down the company's 'CST-100 Starliner spacecraft' in the United States' desert.
"NASA's Commercial Crew Program and our industry partner, Boeing, currently took a massive and productive step toward facilitating more human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station (ISS) on American spacecraft from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Starliner touched down on its airbags at 4:49 p.m. MDT (local time), just 4 hours after leaving the space station. Starliner launched on the evening of May 19 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and reached at the International Space Station About 24 hours later. That was a significant achievement for Boeing.
Just after a liftoff, Starliner successfully entered Earth's orbit, completed a handful of capability demonstrations, and docked with the orbiting outpost 26 hours later. tarliner launched in December 2019 on the original OFT but ended in failure to meet up with International Space Station as planned due to a series of software problems.
"We had a superb test flight of a complex system that we expected to understand from along the way, and we have,” Mark Nappi, vice president and programme manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program stated Even if OFT-2 is now officially declared a success, Starliner had a few glitches during the mission. Two of the thrusters on Starliner's service module, for example, did fail during orbital insertion combustion.
If the inspections and other assessments go well, NASA may be able to certify Starliner for crewed flight, possibly opening the way for an astronaut-carrying test mission to the International Space Station in the coming years.
Credit: Mashable India
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