Miami, May 19 (EFE).- NASA and Boeing began the countdown to the launch this Thursday from Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) of an unmanned mission to the International Space Station (ISS), whose success will mean that the private firm’s Starliner ship obtain certification to carry astronauts and cargo.
The CST-100 Starliner unmanned capsule will take off mounted on top of an Atlas V rocket at 6:54 p.m. this Thursday (22:54 GMT) from Complex-41 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as part of the Commercial Crew program developed by NASA.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule, regarding 5 meters high and with capacity for a crew of up to seven people, will cross the Earth’s atmosphere with the help of an Atlas V rocket, 52 meters high and built by the private consortium United Launch Alliance ( ULA), of which Boeing is also a member.
“With thermal conditioning, or cooling, now complete, liquid oxygen has begun flowing into Centaur’s upper stage (rocket’s second stage) for today’s launch,” ULA reported in an update.
“Approximately 4,150 gallons of liquid oxygen will be loaded into the Dual Engine Centaur for its mission to accelerate Starliner into space,” it added.
For its part, NASA reported that meteorologists from the 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force predict an 80% chance of favorable weather for the launch of the unmanned mission, which has been called OFT-2 .
It is, NASA details, “a demonstration flight that gets one step closer to certification to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station”, as SpaceX already does.
The launch test is regarding demonstrating “the end-to-end capabilities” of the Starliner spacecraft and the Atlas V rocket, from launch to return to Earth, it adds.
This is the second uncrewed flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for the commercial crew program.
About 24 hours following launch, the ISS Harmony module will receive the spacecraft, which will dock autonomously and arrive with 800 pounds (more than 360 kilos) of cargo, of which 500 (almost 230 kilos) correspond to material from NASA and supplies for the crew.
The capsule will stay for regarding five days in the orbiting laboratory before embarking on a return trip that will end in the New Mexico desert, where it will land with 600 pounds (270 kg) of cargo, including three reusable oxygen refill system tanks. and nitrogen that provide breathable air for station crew members.
Like SpaceX, the firm of billionaire Elon Musk, Boeing has a contract of more than 4.2 billion dollars with NASA to take care of transporting astronauts and equipment to and from the space station taking off from US soil. EFE
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