Boeing’s “Starliner” was supposed to transport astronauts to and from the ISS long ago. But the crisis-ridden project is far behind schedule. Now it’s about to get started.
After numerous postponements, another launch attempt for the first manned test flight of the crisis-ridden “Starliner” spacecraft is scheduled for Wednesday (10:52 a.m. local time, 4:52 p.m. CEST). NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams are to fly on board the spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida to the International Space Station ISS and stay there for around a week. According to the US space agency NASA, the weather forecast was initially favorable.
The launch had previously been postponed several times due to various technical problems, and a further short-term postponement has not been ruled out. Launch attempts had already been aborted twice just a few minutes before the planned takeoff, most recently on Saturday. According to NASA, this abort was probably related to an error in a computer system on the ground.
If everything goes as planned this time, the “Starliner” is expected at the ISS on Thursday. The “Crew Dragon” currently docked at the ISS was moved to another docking station for the arrival of the “Starliner”. There would be another launch opportunity on Thursday.
The “Starliner” is also supposed to bring an urgently needed spare part to the ISS: a special pump that helps convert the astronauts’ urine into drinking water on the ISS. The previous model had broken down, according to NASA.
In May 2022, the “Starliner”, developed and built by the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, completed its first successful unmanned flight to the ISS and spent four days there – an important test for the spacecraft. In the future, it will transport astronauts to the ISS as an alternative to SpaceX’s “Crew Dragon” space capsule. However, due to a number of problems, the project is far behind schedule. Competitor SpaceX, on the other hand, has been regularly sending crews to the ISS since 2020, and the eighth one is currently at the space station with the “Crew Dragon”.
The “Starliner” is a partially reusable spacecraft that consists of a three-meter-high capsule for the crew and a service module and can carry up to seven crew members, but is mainly designed for four. Unlike the “Crew Dragon”, it does not land on water, but on Earth.