Starliner is ready for the 2nd test flight

Boeing is about to launch the second unmanned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the Orbital Flight Test 2 or OFT-2 mission is scheduled for July 30, 2021. The takeoff of the Starliner spacecraft, atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, is expected to take place at 20:53 CET , from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Starliner will take about 30 minutes to reach its preliminary orbit and, after about 24 hours, it should dock with the International Space Station. The Boeing capsule was supposed to carry out this maneuver during the OFT-1 mission, in December 2019, but a series of technical problems had prevented the rendezvous with the ISS and forced the capsule to return to earth early.

This time, the stay on the orbiting base should be about a week and includes the transfer of about 200 kilograms of supplies for the crew of the ISS. Eventually, Starliner will bring back to Earth about the same amount of unused material and experiments that have completed their activity in space.

OFT-2 is the final test that will serve to demonstrate the capabilities of the Starliner capsule and the Atlas V rocket to complete the different phases of a typical mission to the international space base: launch, docking and detachment from the ISS, reentry into the atmosphere land and parachute landing in a desert area of the western United States. The data from this unmanned mission will allow NASA to certify Boeing's transportation system for regular flights with astronauts.

If the test goes as expected, Boeing is expected to begin sending crews into space starting in 2022 and the first operational Starliner mission will have NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke aboard.

Together with SpaceX, the aerospace giant is the second supplier of commercial vehicles to the International Space Station. In 2014, SpaceX and Boeing received contracts from NASA to develop manned vehicles to replace the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011.

Credit by: https://www.umbertoguidoni.it