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Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully launched into orbit Thursday evening From Cape Canaveral en route to International Space Station, NASA She said.
The unmanned spacecraft is expected to carry about 800 pounds of cargo A dock on the International Space Station At about 7:10 p.m. ET on Friday, NASA explained in a post-launch briefing. The hatch will open Saturday morning.
It was late launch Boeing’s first successful launch After two previous failed attempts to reach the International Space Station.
“What an amazing launch,” Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Directorate, said at the briefing. “We’ve been working on a couple of things…but overall, the car is so far — it’s made its entry burnt out, and it’s ready for launch, and we’re really looking forward to its debut on the International Space Station.”
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The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launch from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (Joel Kosky/NASA via AP/AP Newsroom)
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stitch has revealed that two of the spacecraft’s thrusters have failed, adding that backups have started successfully. “We have to do more work to find out why they failed,” he said. There are a total of 12 thrusters on the spacecraft.
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He added that the sublimation device, “which sends water into space to cool the spacecraft” was a little slow at first but worked well once it went into orbit.
The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket carrying the Boeing Starliner crew capsule takes off for a second test flight to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Thursday. (AP Photo/John Raoux/AP Newsroom)
Joel Montaband, NASA’s International Space Station program manager, called it a “historic” mission, saying it “provides a second crew for the ISS team and the NASA program in general.”
A ULA Atlas V rocket carrying the Boeing Starliner spacecraft lifts off from Platform 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for the Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission on May 19, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US on May 19, 2022. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Both Boeing and SpaceX received contracts from NASA in 2014 to build spacecraft capable of transporting crews to the International Space Station but SpaceX was the only company To take astronauts so far.
Boeing’s previous failed attempts were in 2019 when the spacecraft was unable to dock due to a major software issue and in 2021 when engineers found that no more than a dozen valves could open in the service module prior to launch, according to Washington Post.