06/06/2024
The Boeing company and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States have finally launched the Starliner spacecraft with a crew on board. The Atlas V launch vehicle carrying the Starliner spacecraft took off from the US Space Force base in Florida at 10:52 a.m. local time (5:52 p.m.).
The current mission is called Crew Flight Test. It was the culmination of Boeing's efforts to create a manned spacecraft suitable for delivering astronauts to the International Space Station. The crew included NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams.
The mission will last for ten days, eight of which the astronauts will spend on the ISS. After that, they will return to Earth on the Starliner, which is expected to land in Arizona.
The Starliner was originally scheduled to launch on May 6, but the flight was canceled due to a malfunctioning safety valve in the oxygen supply system. After that, the mission was repeatedly postponed. The last attempt was on June 1. Then, a few minutes before the start, the countdown was stopped automatically due to a malfunction of the ground systems. The next suitable date for the launch was a day later, but at that time NASA engineers did not have time to make sure that all systems were operational and reliable.
Because of this, the launch was postponed a second time, and the new date was June 5. Today, the launch went without any problems and the ship, after the separation of the first stage, continued its movement towards the orbital station.
Boeing created the Starliner ship to compete with SpaceX in the field of delivering astronauts to the ISS. The company of Elon Musk (Elon Musk) has already carried out eight missions in which astronauts were delivered to the orbital station. For Starliner, the current flight was the first with the participation of the crew.
