CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Boeing launched astronauts for the first time Wednesday, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA. Those astronauts are now on the International Space Station.
The trip by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams took longer than expected Thursday.
Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and former space station residents — stressed repeatedly before the launch that they had full confidence in Boeing’s ability to get it right with this test flight. Crippled by bad software, Starliner’s initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA would let its astronauts strap in. The 2022 do-over went much better, but parachute problems later cropped up and flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule.
Wednesday's launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, coming after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend. A small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system also caused delays, but remained extremely low and manageable.
"It's just a tough endeavor to get to flight and huge kudos to the entire team for getting there,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.
Though new helium leaks were detected on Starliner after the launch — one in a “top” manifold of the spacecraft and another in a “port” manifold, both of them separate from the previous leak — the capsule was believed by NASA to have enough helium to proceed with docking. Helium is used to pressurize the fuel lines for Starliner’s thrusters.
The initial docking window was targeted to open at 12:15 p.m. EDT Thursday, according to NASA. Thruster troubleshooting during the capsule’s approach to the space station pushed the timeline back slightly, prompting NASA commentators to relay that a new window would open at 1:33 p.m. EDT for a second try at docking.
Success would be had in the second docking window, with soft capture confirmed at 1:34 p.m. EDT and hard capture shortly before 2 p.m. EDT, according to NASA.
“Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said.
Hard mate confirmed.
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) June 6, 2024
With hooks driven and other connections in place, #Starliner is now locked in place at the forward port of the @Space_Station.
Thursday’s docking marks the second time Starliner has visited the space station. It did so in 2022 while uncrewed during Orbital Flight Test 2.
Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX a decade ago to ferry NASA’s astronauts to and from the space station. The space agency wanted two competing U.S. companies for the job in the wake of the space shuttles’ retirement, paying $4.2 billion to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which refashioned the capsule it was using to deliver station supplies.
SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries — Russia, the U.S. and China — had mastered. It has taken nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston company that charters flights.
The liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the 100th of an Atlas V for rocket maker United Launch Alliance. It was the first ride for astronauts on an Atlas rocket since John Glenn’s Mercury era more than 60 years ago; the rocket usually launches satellites and other spacecraft.
Despite the Atlas V’s perfect record, the human presence cranked up the tension for the scores of NASA and Boeing employees gathered at Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston.
Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon are designed to be fully autonomous and reusable. Wilmore and Williams occasionally took manual control of Starliner on their way to the space station, to check out its systems. The only snag early in the flight involved the capsule’s cooling system. More water was used than expected before the radiators took over in orbit. The tank will be refilled before the ride home.
If the mission goes well, NASA will alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for taxi flights, beginning next year. The backup pilot for this test flight, Mike Fincke, will strap in for Starliner’s next trip.
“This is exciting. We built up to this moment for years and years, and it finally happened,” Fincke said from neighboring Kennedy Space Center. “I feel like the whole planet was cheering for them.”
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