Significance of Boeing Starliner’s first crewed test flight on May 7 | Explained Premium

Starliner spacecraft, built by Boeing, set to launch astronauts to ISS, overcoming delays and technical challenges.

The story so far: At 8.04 am IST on May 7, an Atlas V rocket is set to lift off with a team of two veteran astronauts — Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams — sitting inside a crew capsule called Starliner, built by Boeing, on the capsule’s third test flight and the first with astronauts on board. The astronauts will be set for the International Space Station (ISS) in low-earth orbit. If the mission succeeds, the U.S. will for the first time in its history have two spacecraft to launch astronauts to space.

Starliner is a spacecraft that transports astronauts in space, after being launched there by a rocket. It consists of a crew capsule and a service module. The crew capsule houses the astronauts; like others of its kind, it will be able to survive reentry and return to the ground. The service module consists of the equipment and systems the astronauts need to survive in space, including air and temperature control, water supply, sanitation, etc., plus the engines and fuel required to manoeuvre the spacecraft. The service module won’t be reusable.

Starliner is more than 4 m wide and can house up to seven astronauts. It can be fit atop an Atlas V rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

On September 16, 2014, NASA announced it had awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to fly astronauts to the ISS. The “maximum potential values” of the fixed price contracts, based on U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulations, were $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX.

Boeing was expected to conduct Starliner’s first crewed launch in 2017. A slew of delays followed, however, and its first uncrewed orbital test flight happened only in December 2019, when the capsule was launched and expected to dock with the ISS. But a software error left it in the wrong orbit and it returned safely to ground the next day without docking.

In May 2022, Boeing repeated the test flight, this time as a full success — docking with the ISS, undocking after four days, and returning to the ground. The May 7 test will repeat this procedure but with astronauts onboard.

Even if the launch happens on time, it will ultimately have been delayed by seven years and with Boeing having overshot its budget by $1.4 billion. Boeing identified many technical problems even after the 2022 flight, and then there was the pandemic.