The “Starliner” space capsule made by “Boeing” successfully landed on Wednesday evening, at the conclusion of a basic experimental mission for the company seeking to prove its capabilities in transporting NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
The unmanned capsule landed in the desert of the US state of New Mexico, at the White Sands base at 16:49 (22:49 GMT).
“It was a smooth landing at White Sands tonight,” one commentator said, in a live video broadcast by NASA.
The capsule’s descent was slowed down by its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, then by large parachutes, and the impact on the ground was mitigated by using large airbags.
The bet was huge both for Boeing, which has been trying to make this test flight a success for years, and for NASA, which has invested billions of dollars in developing the spacecraft. In the future, the agency wants to hire Boeing services to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station.
A safe landing is finally allowing the US aerospace giant to successfully complete a mission from start to finish, after a failure in 2019.
Astronauts on the International Space Station closed the “Starliner” hatch Tuesday. The capsule brings with it a payload of 270 kilograms, including reusable oxygen tanks that will be filled on the ground and returned to orbit later.
The Starliner capsule took off from Florida last Thursday and docked with the International Space Station for the first time the next day. In recent days, several tests have been conducted to verify the proper functioning of the vehicle once it is attached to the flying lab.
But the success of the docking in particular was a real relief for Boeing, after the failure of the first attempt in 2019. At that time, the Starliner had to return earlier than expected, before it could reach the station.
The landing itself did not pose any problem.
After this first failed mission and a lengthy period of modifications, the test flight was scheduled to restart in August 2021. But when the missile was already on the launch pad, malfunctions occurred that hampered the capsule’s valves due to a moisture problem. The vehicle had to return to the factory for repair, a process that took ten months.
This time, the flight to the International Space Station went well, despite some gaps between them, especially a problem in the propulsion system, as two of the twelve propulsion systems used by the capsule to put itself on the correct path did not work as required after liftoff.
However, NASA and Boeing officials played down the severity of the incident.
There was also a delay in the docking of the capsule due to a technical problem with the device that allows it to communicate with the station.
However, these problems remain minor compared to those that occurred in the past.
After that mission, the spacecraft will have to make a second test flight, this time with astronauts on board, to get NASA’s approval.
Boeing hopes that will happen by the end of the year, after which it will begin sending regular missions to the International Space Station. But the exact timing will depend on an analysis of Starliner’s performance in recent days.
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