Watch Starliner heading again to the launchpad at Kennedy
In an enormous step towards its first crewed flight, Boeing Space’s Starliner spacecraft and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket have been transported to the launchpad on the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.
In a video (seen under) displaying the car making its method to the launchpad, Boeing stated the Starliner and Atlas V moved at 1 mph (1.6 km/h) alongside tracks from ULA launch’s Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex-41 in preparation for Saturday’s historic flight with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Today, the #Starliner and #AtlasV stack moved at ~1 mph (1.6 km/h) alongside tracks from @ulalaunch's Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex-41, forward of the Crew Flight Test.
On June 1, @NASA_Astronauts Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni will launch to @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/bl5x6uSkkC
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 30, 2024
It’s truly not the primary time that the spacecraft and rocket has been positioned on the launchpad. At the beginning of this month, the Starliner and Atlas V have been transported to the launchpad for a launch try on May 6.
Everything was working easily till two hours earlier than the scheduled launch, when engineers noticed a difficulty with a valve on the rocket’s higher stage, prompting the mission to be postponed.
As groups addressed the valve concern, a helium leak was discovered on the Starliner spacecraft that additionally needed to be resolved.
While NASA has pushed again a number of goal launch dates since then, this Saturday’s launch seems extra sure than ever and — barring any last-minute hiccups — ought to see the Starliner blast off for a voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) with astronauts on board for the primary time.
It’s been an extended and rocky street for the Starliner. NASA first tried to ship it to the ISS in 2019, however a sequence of software program points prevented it from reaching the right orbit, inflicting the uncrewed check mission to fail.
It wasn’t till 2022 than the Starliner was able to fly once more. That time, the uncrewed car efficiently docked with the ISS, and a short time later returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted touchdown. But after that, extra points surfaced with the Starliner, and it’s taken this lengthy to get the spacecraft prepared for its first crewed flight.
