Boeing’s Starliner capsule lands in White Sands, New Mexico on Could 25, 2022 to finish the OFT-2 mission.
NASA TV
Boeing landed its uncrewed Starliner spacecraft within the New Mexico desert on Wednesday, finishing a crucial test flight as the corporate prepares to hold astronauts.
Starliner landed on the U.S. Military’s White Sands Missile Vary, after earlier within the day leaving the Worldwide Area Station – concluding the six-day Orbital Flight Take a look at 2, or OFT-2 mission.
The mission accomplished considered one of its most essential take a look at goals, reaching the ISS and docking efficiently. OFT-2 marks a crucial growth milestone in Boeing’s growth of Starliner, which has run into a number of obstacles and delays over the past three years.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen earlier than docking with the Worldwide Area Station on Could 20, 2022 in the course of the uncrewed OFT-2 mission.
NASA
Boeing has been creating its Starliner spacecraft underneath NASA’s Business Crew program, having gained practically $5 billion in contracts to construct the capsule. The corporate competes underneath this system in opposition to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which accomplished growth of its Crew Dragon spacecraft and is now on its fourth operational human spaceflight for NASA.
The aerospace large was as soon as seen as evenly matched with SpaceX within the race to launch NASA astronauts. But the delays to Starliner’s growth have steadily set Boeing again, each in schedule and funds. Because of the fixed-price nature of its NASA contract, Boeing absorbed the price of further work on the capsule and has spent $595 million thus far.
Boeing’s subsequent Starliner mission is predicted to be the Crew Flight Take a look at, or CFT, flying the primary astronauts onboard the capsule. Nevertheless, the company is examining whether to redesign the Aerojet Rocketdyne-made propulsion valves on Starliner, which malfunctioned in the course of the firm’s first try to launch the OFT-2 mission in August 2021.