With several years late on SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturer succeeds in bringing its own “shuttle”, even if it was unoccupied.
Le Monde
The Boeing capsule, Starliner, for the first time stuck at the International Space Station (ISS), on the night of Friday May 20 to Saturday May 21. It is a success for the company which must in the future transport astronauts for NASA, even if this empty test flight took place with years of delay on those of SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk.
Landage took place on Saturday at 2:28 a.m. French time, with more than an hour late on the schedule initially planned due to the final checks during approach maneuvers, meticulously choreographed at 400 km at -dessus of our heads.
Astronauts aboard the ISS, and the control room in Houston (Texas), closely monitored the entire operation. Starliner was first stabilized about 250 meters from the station. Then, after having advanced slightly towards the ISS, the capsule fell to ensure that it could retreat if necessary. Finally, after a new mastered arrest although longer than expected, 10 meters, the delicate final maneuver, made while the ISS spins at 28,000 km/h, was started. The vehicle has slowly approached, until contact.
“The Starliner vessel succeeds in its first historic stowage at the International Space Station, opening a new access route to the flying laboratory for the crews,” said a commentator during the live broadcast proposed by NASA.
The capsule disabled will not be opened until later on Saturday. Boeing carries about 230 kg of supplies, including food. Starliner must be stowed at the ISS about five days, before going back down to the earth to land in the desert of the American state of the New Mexico, on the basis of White Sands.
return expected New Mexico
A first non -inhabited test flight had already been tempted in 2019, but the capsule had then encountered several problems and it had to turn back without being able to join the station. Since then, Boeing has been struggling to catch up with SpaceX, yet a new player in the aerospace sector in comparison, but which already transports astronauts for NASA since 2020, after the success of the qualification flights of its own capsule, Dragon.
Starliner had taken off Thursday from Florida, at the top of an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA). About thirty minutes after the launch, the capsule had managed to place itself on the right trajectory, but two of its twelve propellers had not worked. NASA and Boeing officials, however, had minimized the incident, who should not affect the mission.
Propulsers will be used again at the end of the mission, for the maneuver intended to bring the capsule into the earth’s atmosphere. But the problem did not a priori “need to be resolved” by then, the previous thrusts having still worked, said Steve Stich of NASA at a press conference on Thursday evening. The system “does not pose a risk for the rest of the flight test”, confirmed NASA again on Friday on its blog.