The first launch of the Starliner ship arrives with astronauts on board

If all goes according to plan, this morning, at 04:34 (Spanish peninsula time), the Boeing CST-100 Starliner will ascend from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, transporting two crew members to the space station for the first time. international. Boeing is reaching this point after a long history of delays and problems in designing and testing the Starliner. At a critical moment for the company, after the serious accidents that some of its aircraft have been exposed to in recent years.

The goal of the mission to the space station is to verify that the ship is ready to enter service

In 2011, after the last flight of a space shuttle, NASA launched the so-called Commercial Crew Program, a project entrusted to a private initiative to restore North America’s ability to send astronauts into space and stop relying on Russia. Soyuz. The program was made possible in 2014 by awarding contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to design new spacecraft for the country.

Boeing vs. SpaceX

Since then, the path the two companies have taken has been very different. Although Boeing’s design initially seemed more promising, SpaceX took the lead in 2019, when the Demo-1 mission of its Dragon 2 spacecraft, still without humans on board, was able to reach the International Space Station. A year later, on May 31, 2020, Elon Musk’s company achieved a historic success by flying two astronauts aboard Demo-2. Currently, SpaceX has already completed eight crewed missions for NASA and another four for private customers.

For its part, Boeing expected its Starliner to be operational in 2015, but design problems caused a long series of delays. Just when it seemed that the difficulties had been overcome, in December 2019, the Boeing ship suffered a malfunction on its first unmanned flight, preventing it from reaching the space station. Then another technical accident, in August 2021, caused a new launch attempt to be cancelled. Finalmente, the Starliner is set to apply to the Spanish estación in May 2022, after most of the Boeing pospososo, sin fecha, the primera mision tripulada, initial programada for July 2023, fixes a problem with the paracaídas that have been returned to the area. the earth.

Opening mission

On this morning’s flight, the Starliner will be propelled by an Atlas V rocket from ULA (United Launch Alliance), and will carry two astronauts (there will be four on later missions). These are Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, both NASA employees. They are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Wednesday, August 8, at 06:48 (Peninsula time), and stay there for a week.

If all goes well, this mission should serve NASA to approve Starliner and finally put the ship into operation. This would allow Boeing to choose the six crewed flights guaranteed by the current contract with the space agency until 2030, the year in which the International Space Station is scheduled to end its service. In the case of SpaceX, 14 more missions are expected under NASA’s auspices.

A company has problems

In recent years, Boeing has suffered serious mishaps with some of its aircraft. In 2018 and 2019, two 737 MAX planes crashed, killing 346 people and temporarily halting production of the plane. A new incident in January this year caused a door to go missing mid-flight and once again raised doubts about the company’s quality control procedures.

Boeing is currently immersed in several investigations conducted by regulatory authorities, especially after one of its engineers denounced the reductions in materials used in the manufacture of the 777 and 787 Dreamliner models. In this case, this morning’s space flight may mean enhancing Boeing’s public image, or, on the contrary, further deepening the crisis the company is going through.

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