(Washington) The first two astronauts carried by Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft entered the International Space Station on Thursday, a crucial step taken for this mission awaited for years, despite problems that occurred in flight with the capsule’s propulsion system.
“What a great place, it’s great to be back here,” said a smiling NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who is on his third trip to the Space Station (SSI), as is his colleague Suni Williams.
This first crewed mission for Starliner represents a major challenge for the aeronautical giant and NASA. It aims to demonstrate that the vehicle is safe to begin its regular operations.
Ten years ago, the American space agency ordered two new vehicles from American companies Boeing and SpaceX to transport its astronauts to the ISS. If SpaceX has already been playing this role of space taxi for four years, Boeing’s program is years behind schedule.
After taking off from Florida the day before, the spacecraft slowly approached the ISS on Thursday, which is 400 km above the Earth and traveling at around 28,000 km/h.
Docking took place at 1:34 p.m. Eastern Time, approximately one hour and twenty minutes later than originally scheduled.
Problems with some of the ship’s thrusters, used to make small trajectory adjustments, delayed the final approach.
Five of these small thrusters, out of 28 in total, failed at some point, NASA said. But four were eventually put back into operation, providing the number needed for the operation.
The ship’s hatch was opened about two hours after docking, allowing astronauts Butch Wilmore, 61, and Suni Williams, 58, to be greeted by the seven other people already on board the flying laboratory (astronauts from NASA and Russian cosmonauts).
A press conference with officials from NASA and Boeing is planned for the afternoon.
The two Boeing passengers must spend a little over a week on the ISS, before returning to Earth still aboard Starliner.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, NASA announced that two new helium leaks, in addition to one previously known, had been detected in flight on the spacecraft.
These leaks do not represent “a danger to the safety of the crew and the vessel, or to the mission,” said Jim May, a Boeing manager, in a message relayed Thursday morning by the aerospace giant.
One of the leaks, located on one of the ship’s thrusters, was identified before takeoff. It was then decided not to repair it, because after analysis NASA had described it as “small” and considered that it did not represent a danger.
Helium is not a flammable gas, but it is used for the ship’s propulsion system.
It was not immediately clear whether these leaks were linked to the propellant problem encountered just before docking.
The empty spacecraft had already reached the ISS once in 2022, but this is the first time it has carried astronauts.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been training for several years for this mission.
A few hours after takeoff, they temporarily piloted the spacecraft manually to test its proper functioning.
“The precision is truly incredible,” Butch Wilmore said in a recording relayed by Boeing on Wednesday. “Even more so than in the simulator. »
“The first six hours were absolutely fascinating and beyond our expectations,” he added. “It’s just an amazing ship. »
The Starliner development program has been marred by multiple disappointments leading to successive postponements.
Boeing was thus beaten by SpaceX, which has already been transporting astronauts to the ISS since 2020.
But NASA wants to have a second means of transportation to better cope with possible problems on one of the capsules or emergency situations.