Boeing is about to launch its second flight attempt of CST-100 starliner spacecraft. It is understood that starliner is a spacecraft built by Boeing to transport NASA astronauts from the United States to the international space station (ISS). However, it has been plagued by technical failures On Thursday, Boeing will try to reach ISS again to conduct unmanned orbital flight test (OFT)
NASA TV will broadcast the launch live at 3 p.m. local time on May 19. The liftoff time is scheduled for 3:54 p.m. Pacific time. As of Tuesday, the weather was 70% favorable for the launch.
Starliner will take off on the joint launch Alliance (ULA) atals V rocket, which will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. It is understood that the cabin contains 800 pounds (360 kilograms) of cargo, which should arrive at the international space station about 24 hours after launch. Although there will be no people in the cabin, Rosie the Rocketeer, an anthropomorphic test astronaut equipped with sensors, will accompany him.
"Oft-2 will test starliner's end-to-end capabilities from launch to docking, re-entry and landing in the western desert of the United States. Oft-2 will provide valuable data to help NASA certify the acoustic crew transportation system used to transport astronauts into and out of the space station," NASA said in a statement on Monday“
It is understood that starliner will stay on the international space station for up to 10 days, and then return to earth for a ground landing. If the spacecraft passes the test, NASA will consider sending someone to test fly and equip it with real astronauts.
The first oft took place at the end of 2019, but it was not fully carried out as planned at that time. Although starliner launched and landed safely, it failed to reach the space station due to software problems. Boeing plans to re launch in 2021, but continued technical difficulties will push the test flight to 2022.
Both Boeing and SpaceX are part of NASA's commercial crew program, which aims to bring astronauts back to the United States after years of dependence on Russian spacecraft. SpaceX is carrying out an in-depth crew rotation mission. It just sent crew-4 to the international space station at the end of April. Boeing still has some work to do. Oft-2 is a key part of putting starliner into the orbit of actual astronaut missions.