After several delays, a Boeing capsule with two astronauts is scheduled to be launched to the space station for the first time this Saturday. ISS fly. NASA astronauts Suni Williams, 58, and Butch Wilmore, 61, were actually supposed to launch last summer, but there were problems with the parachute and easily flammable cables. A flight without a crew was successful in May 2022 – but only on the second attempt.
At the beginning of May, the astronaut flight failed due to a defective valve on the Atlasrocket. During the investigation, the engineers also discovered a helium leak in the service module of the Starlinercapsule. Helium is used to ignite the capsule’s small engines. After thorough investigations, NASA managers decided to fly despite the small leak, reports Bloomberg. The situation is under control, even if the problem with the leak should spread during the flight. The leak will be monitored. Spaceships such as the Space Shuttle and also the Crew Dragon flown by Space-X astronauts despite a leak. The defective valve on the rocket has, however, been replaced.
The Starliner-Mission is now scheduled to start this Saturday at 6:25 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Alternative dates According to NASA, the missions are scheduled for Sunday and Wednesday and Thursday next week. If the flight goes well on Saturday, the Starliner-Capsule on Sunday at 19:50 CEST to the Docking space stationThe two astronauts are expected to spend about a week on the space station before flying back to Earth. They will then land by parachute in a desert in the southwestern United States. Potential landing sites are in New Mexico, California, Arizona and Utah.
The Space-X capsule Crew Dragonwhich has been bringing astronauts to the ISS for years, lands in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. Space-X and Boeing emerged from a NASA tender that aimed to Space Shuttle again an independent access to the ISS In the meantime, NASA astronauts had to stay in the Russian Soyuz-Capsule fly along.
If everything goes smoothly this time, the approximately ten-times usable Starliner possibly from 2025 onwards, ISS crews will also be flying regularly. Weather-wise, the chances are 90 percent good on Saturday, according to meteorologists from the neighboring Space Force. A success would be enormously important for Boeing – not least because of the major problems in the aircraft division.