Boeing’s Starliner capsule went through some historic launch sites earlier this month on its way to the site.
Starliner who passed his flight readiness review on Wednesday (May 11th) to try a new unmanned test flight to International Space Station on May 19, he was caught in a recent timelapse video preparing for the mission.
Starliner’s journey in the 2-minute timelapse that Boeing posted on Twitter Tuesday (May 10) begins at NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The video shows Starliner moving to the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) vertical integration facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral’s space station, which is adjacent to KSC.
Connected: Boeing, NASA are working to fix the Starliner capsule valve problem
Accompanied by technicians, the Starliner slips out in front of a crowd, drives on the way to the KSC launch pad and then moves on to the VIF, where it is lifted by a crane to mate on the ULA. Atlas V rocket. Integration activities will continue in the days before launch.
Starliner’s upcoming mission, known as the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), will be Boeing’s second attempt at an ISS meeting. Boeing will once again try to simulate an ISS mission with a Starliner crew, demonstrating key launch, launch and descent activities.
During the first OFT mission, which launched in December 2019, Starliner suffered a number of problems that prevented a meeting with the orbital laboratory. Boeing is now hoping for a test flight with a crew to the ISS later in 2022, provided the OFT-2 is doing well.
OFT-2 was supposed to launch last year, but Starliner and Atlas V were rolled off his launch pad launch pad in early August to deal with more than a dozen jammed valves in the capsule service module. Ongoing valve troubleshooting, along with a busy startup schedule to the ISS, move the mission to 2022.
Boeing says it is confident it has addressed the issue valve problem, which is caused by moisture that interacts with the oxidant and creates corrosion. The company also replaced the Starliner service module originally planned for the upcoming flight.
A second company also offers astronaut trips to space. SpaceX delivered its first test crew in 2020 and recently launched its fourth operational test flight, called Crew-4. Both Boeing and SpaceX have trade agreements with NASA crew to carry out ISS crew missions.
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