After years of delays, the space capsule “Starliner” will take off for its first crewed test flight today at 4:52 PM CEST. It is intended to carry NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS). Here you can see the preparations and the start in the stream.
The spacecraft, built by Boeing, will be launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida using an ‘Atlas V’ rocket. The launch, originally scheduled for May, has been postponed several times due to problems with the launch vehicle.
Project several years behind schedule
The ‘Atlas’ rocket is being built by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between the aerospace company Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The program is not only several years behind schedule, but is also already more than 1.5 billion dollars (the equivalent of almost 1.4 million euros) over budget.
The “Starliner” has had a long and bumpy journey to the launch pad. Today’s launch attempt comes almost four weeks later than the originally planned May 6 launch. This was aborted about two hours before takeoff after an anomaly was discovered in an oxygen relief valve in the upper stage of the Atlas V rocket.
The ‘Atlas V’ with the ‘Starliner’ on the head was then rolled from the launch pad to a processing hall, where the valve was replaced. During this work, another problem arose: a small helium leak in an engine in the space capsule’s service module.
Most recently, on June 1, a launch attempt was aborted just minutes before the countdown due to a computer problem.
Source: Krone
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