Boeing prepares to restart Starliner after SpaceX humiliation | Science & Technology News
Boeing is preparing to test another Starliner shuttle launch, built as part of a $4.2 billion contract with NASA.
An unmanned flight is scheduled for Thursday, May 19, and after a series of unfortunate attempts, including a launch in 2019, in which the capsule failed to dock with International Space Station (ISS).
Resupply mission for the purpose of proving NASA that the spacecraft operated after the delay increased the pressure Boeing face the successes of your opponents SpaceX.
Starliner’s first orbital test in 2019 ended with the capsule failing to meet the ISS due to software problemalthough it successfully landed back on Earth two days later.
Subsequent second attempt in a failed test flight has been scrubbed due to “unexpected valve” failure due to moisture and corrosion.
It follows a successful SpaceX launch for NASA in May 2020 that saw Astronauts travel into space from American soil for the first time since the shutdown of the space shuttle program – since the company sent more than 20 people to the ISS.
Both the SpaceX mission and Boeing’s Starliner capsule test are underway as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, thanks to private companies that allow the space agency to send astronauts to the ISS .
Program director Steve Stich said: “It’s been a tough eight months, but I’m very pleased we’ve resolved the issue.
NASA intends to crash ISS into ‘spacecraft cemetery’
The Commercial Crew Program is part of NASA’s effort to give the private sector a foothold in space, eventually replacing the orbiting lab with several commercial space stations.
Among the companies planning to build commercial destinations is Axiom Space – which is part of that project – which recently launched First completely private mission to the ISSUsing SpaceX of course.
In the published plans for the future of the ISS, the space agency has suggested that the 444,615kg structure could be lifted out of orbit by January 2031 and crash into a “spaceship cemetery”.
In the perfect scenario, the space station’s orbital altitude would slowly descend from its current altitude of 408km (253 miles).
As the ISS’s altitude decreases, it will encounter an increasingly dense atmosphere, creating more drag and pulling it lower.
The space station will still move so fast that it will begin to heat up and throw debris in a path behind it.
The plan to avoid this debris from damaging people or property is for the ISS to crash into an uninhabited area in the southern Pacific Ocean, near Point Nemo.
Point Nemo is called the spaceship cemetery because – being the furthest point on Earth from any land – it’s where decommissioned spaceships typically aim when they return to Earth.