Space station astronauts visit Boeing Starliner capsule

Boeing followed SpaceX in placing a capsule docked at the International Space Station. Last Saturday, this spacecraft managed to leave Earth for the first time and go into space, having completed half of the mission. The other half will leave the ISS and quickly arrive on Earth. The Starliner flight was unmanned, but ISS astronauts gave us a tour to show us what the spacecraft looks like from the inside.

The capsule measures 4.56 meters in diameter, slightly larger than the Apollo Command Module and SpaceX. Dragon 2and smaller than a capsule Orion.

ISS astronauts showing the Boeing capsule

International Space Station astronauts took to the air in a Boeing Starliner capsule on Saturday, becoming the first humans to land on an orbiting spacecraft less than a day after it first docked at the orbital research facility.

These ISS denizens will spend several days testing and unpacking cargo inside the Starliner spacecraft before it departs and returns to Earth on Wednesday.

NASA astronaut Bob Hines became the first person to land on the orbiting Starliner spacecraft after opening the capsule's nose hatch at 12:04 pm EDT (1604 GMT) on Saturday. Two of his crew, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Russian cosmonaut Denis Matveev, joined him inside the spacecraft minutes later.

The crew initially wore masks and goggles to protect against potentially floating particles inside the Boeing capsule. Space station astronauts typically wear protective gear when they first enter a new spacecraft or new module.

After confirming that everything was in order, the protective material was removed and they began to remove the interior so that everyone on Earth would know this ship.

Welcome to Starliner, a first in space

star ship docked to the front port of the Harmony module from the station at 01:28 am last Saturday (mainland Portugal time). The capsule completed its automatic docking after holding a position near the station for longer than planned, giving mission control time to resolve a problem with its docking mechanism.

Hines, Lindgren and teammates Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti flew to the International Space Station last month on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Its launch and docking marked the fourth operational flight of the SpaceX crew capsule carrying astronauts to the space station and the seventh global flight of the Dragon crew, including a test flight in 2020 and two fully commercial manned space flights.

However, the Starliner program requires a few years later on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. flight from 2019 unmanned test aborted due to issues software, and the spacecraft returned to Earth without docking with the station.

Boeing and NASA have agreed to launch a second unmanned demonstration mission called Orbital flight-test-2 - but the launch has been delayed since August last year due to problems with valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system.

BUT Boeing had to pay $595 million in accounting expenses to pay for the OFT-2 mission and associated delays.

The OFT-2 mission finally lifted off on Thursday, May 19, from Cape Canaveral aboard a rocket from the spaceport. Atlas 5 United Launch Alliance. NASA and Boeing managers approved the approach of the Starliner spacecraft to the space station on Friday due to various technical issues with the capsule's engines and cooling system.

The spacecraft is ready to receive multi-million dollar contracts from NASA

NASA awards SpaceX and Boeing multi-million dollar contracts in 2014, complete the design and development of Dragon and Starliner vehicles. In total, NASA signed commercial crew contracts with Boeing worth over $5.1 billion and $3.1 billion in contracts providing for similar work with SpaceX.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program was created to provide US astronauts with independent access to the space station after launch. space shuttle. For nine years since the shuttle's last flight, NASA astronauts have been assembling the Russian spacecraft. Union to the space station and back.

In 2014 NASA awarded commercial crew contracts and this is the day they envisioned when we have three human spacecraft docked at the space station right now. So we have the Soyuz docked to the MLM (Multipurpose Laboratory Module) and then we have the Dragon right above us and the Starliner right behind us.

These these Hines.