The second test flight for Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, known as the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission, will not leave until the end of this summer. After months of delays, NASA and Boeing pushed the launch from April to early August, citing severe weather and technical problems with the spacecraft’s avionics.
Boeing would be ready to launch the unmanned Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station in May if a previous opportunity arose, the company said in a statement. However, a May launch would depend on the schedule of other space station missions, the availability of the United States Alliance’s Atlas V missile launch and the Eastern Range space port, the company added.
“The Starliner team has completed all work on the OFT-2 vehicle, except for activities to be performed closer to launch, such as loading cargo and refueling the spacecraft,” Boeing said in a statement. “The team also sent all verification and validation documents to NASA and is completing all actions recommended by the independent review team, including those that were not mandatory prior to OFT-2.”
Related: Boeing’s first Starliner spacecraft lands in New Mexico after a shortened test flight
After a first test flight in December 2019, during which Starliner failed to reach the International Space Station, a NASA analysis team identified 80 problems that Boeing must solve, mainly in the software. Starliner. This failure delayed the first crew flight test (CFT), which is now scheduled to be launched as early as September. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke will fly on the CFT mission.
The company’s engineers are currently conducting software simulations, including reliable end-to-end and integration tests, which will serve as a rehearsal before future Starliner flights. Boeing said it expects to complete all software tests in April.
The Starliner team is already preparing for the CFT and recently conducted an exercise with astronauts boarding and boarding the OFT-2 spacecraft for a fully integrated and powered verification of life support and communications systems.
NASA’s commercial crew program awarded Boeing a $ 4.2 billion contract in 2014 to launch two to six manned missions to the International Space Station on its new Starliner spacecraft. At the same time, SpaceX received a similar contract, valued at $ 2.6 billion, for the launch of NASA astronauts on its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX is currently preparing to launch its second operational mission with astronauts, called Crew-2, on Thursday (April 22nd). The company has already successfully completed an unmanned test flight and a manned flight to the Crew Dragon space station. SpaceX’s first fully operational mission with four astronauts, called Crew-1, was launched at the station in November 2020 and is scheduled to return to Earth on April 28.
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