Better to arrive late than never.
After years of development and repeated attempts, Boeing's space capsule, Starliner, successfully docked with the International Space Station on Friday.
A success for the company which must in the future transport astronauts for NASA, even if this empty test flight took place years behind SpaceX.
Docking with the Space Station (ISS) took place at 8:28 p.m. US East Coast time (00:28 GMT Saturday), more than an hour behind the originally scheduled time due to final checks during maneuvers , meticulously choreographed 400 km above our heads.
The capsule at the time of contact with the ISS.
AFP PHOTO / NASA TV AFP or licensors
Astronauts aboard the ISS, and the control room in Houston, closely monitored the approach.
Starliner first leveled off about 250 m from the station.
Then, after advancing slightly, the capsule retreated to demonstrate that it could retreat if needed.
Finally, after a new controlled stop although longer than expected at 10 m, the delicate final maneuver, carried out while the station is speeding at 28,000 km/h, has been initiated.
The vehicle approached slowly, until contact.
Half-hearted success
“The Starliner spacecraft successfully completes its historic first docking with the International Space Station, opening a new route to the flying laboratory for crews,” the US space agency said during a live broadcast.
The capsule hatch will only be open this Saturday.
Boeing is transporting about 230 kg of supplies on behalf of NASA, including food.
Starliner must remain docked to the ISS for about five days, before descending back to Earth to land in the desert of the US state of New Mexico, at the base of White Sands.
This unmanned test flight ends several years of setbacks after a first unsuccessful test in 2019. The capsule could not be placed in the correct orbit due to a clock problem.
Boeing then realized that other software problems had almost caused a serious flight anomaly.
Many setbacks
Since then, Boeing has struggled to catch up with SpaceX, a newcomer to the aerospace sector.
This competitor belonging to the American billionaire Elon Musk has already been transporting astronauts for NASA since 2020.
In 2021, another failure: while the rocket was already on the launch pad to attempt the flight again, a humidity problem had caused a chemical reaction that blocked the opening of certain valves of the capsule.
She had had to return to the factory for inspection, for ten months.
The 2022 edition of Starliner did not escape some scares.
Two of the boosters on the Atlas V rocket carrying the capsule failed to ignite 30 minutes after launch from Florida.
The machine still managed to place itself on the right trajectory.
According to NASA and Boeing, the incident remains minimal, the system "does not pose a risk for the rest of the test flight".
VIDEO.
Last chance mission for the Boeing space capsule after years of waiting
The thrusters will be used again at the end of the mission, for the maneuver intended to bring the capsule back into the Earth's atmosphere.
But the problem does not a priori “need to be solved” by then, the previous pushes having nevertheless worked, had estimated Steve Stich of NASA during a press conference Thursday evening.
Catching up with Space X
After this empty test, a second will have to be carried out for the spacecraft to obtain NASA approval, this time with astronauts on board.
The timing will depend on how Starliner performs this week, but Boeing plans to fly it by the end of the year.
For the American space agency too, the stakes are high, as it has invested heavily in the development of the vessel.
NASA has fixed-price contracts with Boeing and SpaceX worth billions of dollars.
The choice to use two companies should make it possible to encourage competition and to never again risk, in the event of a problem for one or the other, of ending up without an American “taxi” to the ISS.
After the shutdown of space shuttles in 2011, and until 2020, NASA was indeed reduced to paying for places in Russian Soyuz rockets.