The astronauts living on the International Space Station will be able to use the first Starliner capsule.
The Starliner was opened by a NASA Astronaut at 12:04 pm. The capsule will be tested for about five days. It is a major milestone for Boeing and NASA, which chose Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
There are three human-rated vehicles docked at the space station right now, which is what they envisioned.
The Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 mission to the International Space Station is live.
Boeing has had a better road to travel since it launched its Starliner.
During the first OFT in December, Starliner failed to reach the International Space Station due to software problems, and then had its second attempt scrubbed hours before liftoff in August of 2021. There have been some minor problems with the cooling system.
Those are the kinds of things we expect in flight test and that is why we are doing it.
The vehicle has had issues before, but the malfunction of the thruster shortly after the launch doesn't seem to be related to them. At a post-launch press briefing Thursday night, NASA and Boeing representatives doubled down on their confidence in Starliner to complete its mission.
Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Boeing's commercial crew program, said that the system was redundant and performed as it was supposed to.
The rendezvous test maneuvers began after 3:30 p.m. after Starliner spent Thursday night chasing down the orbital laboratory. On Friday. The capsule was able to stop on command and retreat away from the station before docking.
Boeing flight operators were happy with the results and told Starliner to begin docking procedures. At 8:26 p.m. Starliner docked with the International Space Station on Friday.
Over the next few days, crew members aboard the space station will empty Starliner of 500 pounds of supplies and provisions, then pack it with 600 pounds of cargo for return to Earth.
Rosie the Rocketeer is Boeing's test dummy and will stay on board Starliner. Rosie will be in the command seat of the Starliner for the ride back to Earth.
During the first test flight, Rosie was used to measure g-forces on the body. The sensors are being used to measure the effects of the forces on Starliner's seats. After a four- to five-day stay at the space station, Starliner is scheduled to return to Earth, a timescale largely dictated by weather at the vehicle&s potential landing sites in the western United States.
Boeing added an extra bit of fun to Starliner's trip to the space station by giving it a plush toy of Kerman from the hit space exploration game Kerbal Space Program.
The story was originally posted at 6 a.m. The hatch opening of Starliner was reported at 2 pm.
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