Watch Live: NASA Attempts Second Launch of Boeing’s Troubled Starliner Spacecraft

NASA is scheduled to launch a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on Tuesday, August 3, in what would be the second uncrewed take a look at of the business crew automobile. You can watch the motion dwell proper right here.

The take a look at automobile is about to launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT (10:20 a.m. PDT) from Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is the second uncrewed take a look at flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and the primary launch of the spacecraft since a botched take a look at in 2019. NASA protection begins at 12:30 p.m. EDT (9:30 a.m. PDT).

The capsule will launch atop an Atlas V rocket, constructed by United Launch Alliance. Around half-hour after launch, Starliner will hearth its thrusters because it units a course for a daylong journey to the International Space Station. This can be an end-to-end demonstration of the automobile, in a mission that may—finger’s crossed—present “valuable data toward NASA certifying Boeing’s crew transportation system for regular flights to and from the space station,” as NASA says in a press release.

The Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission was initially scheduled for Friday, July 30, however a scary incident aboard the ISS, through which a docked Russian module unexpectedly fired its thrusters, resulted within the four-day delay.

This scheduled flight could also be a take a look at, nevertheless it received’t be a wasted journey. The Starliner spacecraft is filled with 400 kilos of NASA cargo and crew provides, and it’ll ultimately return 550 kilos of stuff again to Earth, together with reusable tanks that present air to the ISS crew. Starliner is scheduled to reach on the ISS at 1:37 p.m. EDT (10:37 a.m. PDT) on August 4, with NASA protection of the docking beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. PDT) tomorrow.

In addition to the cargo, Starliner can be carrying Rosie the Rocketeer—an anthropometric take a look at system that may monitor the spacecraft’s vibrations and acceleration through the journey. For this mission, Rosie’s 15 sensors will collect information from the seat pallet (the infrastructure that holds the seats in place).

“While Rosie provided us critical insight into how much force her body experienced in the commander seat during the first OFT mission, these new sensors will capture data to characterize the motion of all four crew seats,” Dan Niedermaier, crew module chief engineer, mentioned in a Boeing statement. “Generally, all seat locations behave similarly; however, there are small differences that our engineers want to validate to ensure everyone gets a nice, enjoyable ride.”

NASA and Boeing are hoping that issues go smoother than they did on December 20, 2019, throughout Orbital Flight Test-1. A clock error on the spacecraft resulted in an extra burning of gas, stopping it from reaching the ISS. Later, investigators detected a second software glitch that would’ve brought on the capsule to smash into its aft service part (the 2 parts are designed to separate in orbit previous to re-entry by Earth’s environment).

A NASA-Boeing unbiased evaluation workforce ultimately offered Boeing with 80 suggestions to get this system again on monitor. The aerospace producer has labored its manner by this daunting guidelines, just lately completing a simulated five-day end-to-end mission. All of the suggestions made by the evaluation workforce at the moment are “complete and pending closure by NASA,” according to the house company.

“NASA and Boeing have done an incredible amount of work to get to this point,” Steve Stich, Commercial Crew Program supervisor, mentioned in a statement. “Our teams are ready for this important mission due to the coordinated efforts of many, including United Launch Alliance, NASA’s Launch Services Program, and the U.S. Space Force, which enabled us to establish this launch opportunity. We are looking forward to a successful OFT-2 mission.”

Indeed, a profitable mission would set the stage for a crewed take a look at of the Starliner spacecraft. What’s extra, an excellent outcome will characterize an vital step in direction of NASA possessing two viable platforms for delivering astronauts to the ISS, the opposite being SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Starliner has been in improvement for greater than 10 years, and it’s an integral a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, through which the house company is regaining its skill to independently launch NASA astronauts to house from U.S. soil after the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

More: Russia says software program glitch brought on new ISS module to unintentionally hearth thrusters after docking.