Boeing’s Starliner capsule will dock for the first time at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday evening (May 20), and you can watch the milestone moment live.
Starliner lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Thursday evening (May 19) and began a pivotal unmanned mission to the ISS called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). The Starliner capsule is expected to arrive in the orbit lab around 7:10 p.m. EDT (2310) Friday.
You can watch the action live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly through the space agency. Coverage begins at 3:30 PM EDT (1930 GMT).
Live updates: Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 Mission to ISS
Related: Boeing’s Starliner OFT-2 test flight for NASA in stunning photos
Yes, that’s a lot of lead time, but this docking attempt is a major problem for both Boeing and NASA. OFT-2 was designed to show that Starliner is ready to transport astronauts to and from the space agency lab, and it’s the capsule’s second bite of that apple.
“We’ve learned a lot about the capabilities of our spacecraft and the resiliency of our team since the first Starliner launch,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, in a statement. “We still have many operational tests ahead of us as we prepare to meet with the space station, but we are ready to demonstrate that the system we’ve worked so hard on is capable of carrying astronauts to space.”
Just reaching the target runway with Starliner is an achievement for Boeing.
Launched in December 2019, the original OFT ended prematurely after Starliner suffered a series of software problems and got stuck in orbit too low to allow for an ISS rendezvous. And OFT-2 was originally scheduled to take off last summer, but pre-launch checks revealed that 13 of the 24 oxidation valves were stuck in Starliner’s propulsion system. It took about eight months to identify and fix the root of the problem.
OFT-2 hasn’t gone perfectly so far either. One of Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned during its critical orbital insertion fire, 31 minutes after launch, NASA and Boeing officials said at a post-launch press conference Thursday night.
That thruster’s backup was activated to compensate, but failed before the combustion was complete. A tertiary reserve thruster then turned on and Starliner was able to get into orbit for an ISS rendezvous. That backup-to-backup thruster also performed well during a subsequent Starliner engine fire Thursday night, NASA officials said.
“The system was designed to be redundant and it performed as it should. Now the team is working on the ‘why’ why these anomalies have occurred,” Nappi said at the press conference.
Mike Wall is the author of “Outside(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall† follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or on facebook†
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