Washington. August 7. INTERFAX - Boeing Corporation's manned spacecraft CST-100 Starliner will be ready to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2024, Director of the Boeing spacecraft development program Mark Nappi said.
"Now, based on current plans, we expect that the spacecraft will be ready by the beginning of March (2024 - IF). This does not mean that the launch date is set for early March, but that the ship will be ready by then," Nappi said during a NASA teleconference on Monday.
"We are working with the NASA and ULA commercial manned flight program on the issue of a possible launch date, the purpose of which depends on our readiness, the complex sequence (arrival and departure - IF) of ships to the ISS and the sequence of launches from the ULA launch pad, so over the next few weeks we will decide on what time can be assigned launch, and we will determine the start date," he stressed.
Previously, the launch of a promising spacecraft to the station was repeatedly postponed, the last time a test flight was planned to be carried out on July 21, however, due to problems with parachutes and insulating wiring, the start of the mission had to be postponed again.
According to the head of NASA's commercial manned flight program, Steve Stitch, at the moment, Boeing and NASA specialists are fixing problems with parachutes and preparing for their testing, as well as removing the insulation coating to replace it.
As part of the first manned flight of the Starliner spacecraft, two astronauts are to go to the station - Barry Wilmore (the commander of the ship) and Sunita Williams (the pilot). According to Joel Montalbano, NASA's ISS program manager, the spacecraft will spend about two weeks at the station, during which the astronauts will work together with the current ISS crew.
If the mission is successful, the ship will be certified by NASA to conduct regular manned missions to the station on it.
The launch of the spacecraft to the station is planned to be carried out from the 41st launch complex of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida using an Atlas V launch vehicle. The main objective of the mission is to test the ship's ability to safely transport crews to the space station and return them to Earth.
After completing the mission to the ISS, the ship will have to make a soft landing on land at the White Sands test site in New Mexico.
As Nappi noted earlier, it is assumed that the manned spacecraft will fly to the ISS once a year.
Boeing Corporation is developing a reusable manned Starliner spacecraft under a contract with NASA. Like SpaceX, it was chosen by the American Space Agency as a developer of new systems for delivering astronauts to the ISS.
On December 20, 2019, as part of the first test flight without a crew, due to software problems, the Starliner deviated from the route, entered an abnormal orbit, overspent fuel and could not dock to the ISS. It returned to Earth two days after launch, making a successful soft landing at the White Sands test site. This was the first ever landing of an American descent system on land. All previous American vehicles were brought to the ocean.
As part of the second test unmanned flight on May 21, 2022, the ship successfully docked automatically to the Harmony module of the American segment of the ISS, delivering more than 360 kg of materials to the station for its supply.