Boeing's Starliner Approaching ISS In High-stakes Test Mission

Boeing's Starliner capsule was preparing to dock with the International Space Station Friday, in a high-stakes uncrewed test flight key to reviving the US aerospace giant's reputation after a series of failures

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th May, 2022 ) :Boeing's Starliner capsule was preparing to dock with the International Space Station Friday, in a high-stakes uncrewed test flight key to reviving the US aerospace giant's reputation after a series of failures.

The spaceship blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday evening, and is now set to rendezvous with the ISS at 7:10 pm Eastern Time (2310 GMT), as part of a mission to prove it is capable of providing safe rides for NASA astronauts.

Starliner encountered some propulsion problems early in its journey, with two thrusters responsible for placing it in a stable orbit failing for unclear reasons -- though officials insisted everything remained on track.

"Overall, the spacecraft is doing really well," Steve Sitch, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program told reporters at a post-launch press conference, in which he nonetheless flagged anomalies that engineers are working to understand.

One of 12 orbital maneuvering and attitude control (OMAC) thrusters located on Starliner's aft side failed after one second, at which point a second thruster kicked in and took over, but also cut out after 25 seconds.

The ship's software then engaged a third thruster that completed the necessary burn.

The OMAC thrusters are set to be used to bring Starliner closer to the ISS, and to help de-orbit the spacecraft near the end of the mission.

"We'll go look at the data and try to understand what happened. And then from a redundancy perspective, can we recover those thrusters?" said Sitch.

Starliner's success is key to repairing Boeing's frayed reputation after its first launch, back in 2019, failed to dock with the ISS due to software bugs -- one that led to it burning too much fuel to reach its destination, and another that could have destroyed the vehicle during re-entry.

A second try was scheduled in August 2021, but the capsule was rolled back from the launchpad to address sticky valves that weren't opening as they should, and the vessel was eventually sent back to the factory for fixes.

NASA is looking to certify Starliner as a second "taxi" service for its astronauts to the space station -- a role that Elon Musk's SpaceX has provided since succeeding in a test mission for its Dragon capsule in 2020.