Starliner lifts off! Spacecraft with Sunita Williams on board flies to space after multiple delays. Watch
Starliner lifts off
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft finallylifted off Wednesday (Jun 5)on its maiden human flight to space after having suffered multiple delays, two scrubs and several glitches.
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams flew alongside NASAastronaut Butch Willmoreon her third mission , who is the commander of the Crew Flight Test mission of the spacecraft.
The previous launch of the spacecraft was scheduled for June 1 but it was scrubbed after a last-minute glitch. An automatic hold triggered by the ground launch sequencer, or the computer that launches the rocket, stopped the countdown clock at 3 minutes and 50 seconds ahead of launch.
Before that, the mission was supposed to lift off on May 6 but it was also delayed with two hours left in the countdown.
Significance of the flight
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If the mission remains successful, NASA can then rely on Boeing services for carrying out routine trips to the orbiting outpost. As of now, NASA's options are limited as it has just two service providers: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The two veteran astronauts are well-prepared to deal with any kind of emergency situations. They will take control of the autonomous Starliner spacecraft ifsomething goes wrong.
Also read:Last-minute snag halts launch of Boeing’s Starliner, NASA estimates 24-hour turnaround time
"They're checking out a lot of the systems: the life support, the manual control," NASA chief Bill Nelson said during a May 3 news conference. "That's why we put two test pilots on board — and of course the resumes of Butch and Suni are extensive."
The two astronauts are expected to spend eight days inside the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board.
The spacecraft is having a helium leak
NASA said a helium leak was detected on the spacecraft recently but it did not pose any threat to the mission.
“We looked really hard at what our options were with this particular flange (the part where the leak is located),” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. said. “A fuel line, an oxidizer line and a helium line all go into the flange, which makes it problematic to work on. It makes it almost unsafe to work on,” he added.