Two years after the first attempt, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft will dock at the ISS. This is done as an alternative to Russia’s Soyuz ships.
Boeing launched a Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station as part of its second test flight (Orbital Flight Test-2-OFT-2), AFP reports.
The Orbital Test Flight 2 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
As they said, no crew was on board. The only passenger was a dummy named Rosie, who had already flown the Starliner on its first test flight in 2019.
The Starliner is scheduled to dock on the ISS about a day after launch and deliver more than 226 kg of cargo, including food, clothing and sleeping bags, to the station’s crew.
Shortly after launch on May 20 at 01:54 Kyiv time, the spacecraft successfully entered orbit and headed for the ISS.
The capsule will return to Earth in the New Mexico desert using three parachutes.
Boeing is developing the Starliner reusable manned spacecraft under a contract with NASA as part of a program to eliminate the need to purchase seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Like SpaceX, it was selected by the US space agency as a developer of new systems for delivering astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX has already completed four such missions with its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The final launch took place at the end of April. Meanwhile, Boeing is still in the testing phase of its ship in unmanned mode.
Recall that the first Starliner trials took place in 2019.
Changing union. The Starliner has successfully returned to Earth
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Source: korrespondent
