The Starliner spaceship successfully landed after its mission to the ISS

(NASA HQ)

Mission accomplished. The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft landed at the test site in New Mexico and successfully completed a test flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

On this occasion the ship flew to the ISS without a crew, and the next flight will be the first with astronauts on board.

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is one of two new spacecraft that NASA has commissioned to take astronauts to the ISS. The other one is the Crew Dragon from SpaceX.

Both spacecraft consist of a reusable capsule and a disposable service module.

The Starliner is designed to carry up to seven people, however NASA will only launch up to four astronauts.

The development of both ships was far behind the original schedule and their first flights did not happen in the mid-2010s, but in 2019.

The Crew Dragon completed its first flight without significant problems, but Starliner couldn't do it.

The Boeing ship incorrectly performed one of the orbital maneuvers and failed to reach the station.

The relaunch of the unmanned Starliner recently took place: on May 20, 2022.

During the launch, 2 out of 12 main engines failed, but the ship managed to get to the ISS and docked to it a day after launch.

After docking, the crew at the ISS opened the hatches, examined the ship and took about 250 kilograms of cargo.

On the night of Wednesday, the spacecraft returned to Earth landing safely at the White Sands military training ground in New Mexico.

Now the ship will be brought to the Boeing plant in Florida, where engineers will examine its condition.

NASA expects that the test flight with the crew will take place no earlier than the end of the year.

However, it is not known how the failure of the engines during the completed mission will affect the launch date.

The first regular flight will take place after a crewed test flight in 2023, and they will use the same capsule that landed today.

Source:

• Starliner: https://starlinerupdates.com/starliner-lands-successfully-completing-oft-2/
• CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/25/tech/boeing-starliner-landing-oft-2-scn/index.html
• Steemit: https://steemit.com/hive-109160/@sarahjay1/boeing-launches-its-cst-100-starliner-spacecraft-on-its-critical-second-test-flight-video

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