Even so, Boeing did not avoid problems during the flight. Shortly after launch, Starliner failed two of its 12 engines, and the company also said it was monitoring the unexpected behavior of the temperature control system. However, the module temperature remained stable.
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According to the AP, the journey from the international space station ISS, to which the ship joined last week, was fast. After about four hours, the capsule landed on a U.S. military campus in New Mexico using three parachutes and six airbags. On its way into space and back to Earth, the ship carried several hundred kilos of supplies and materials.
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Capsules after landing in New Mexico.
Photo: Bill Ingalls, CTK / AP
This was Starliner’s second test flight. The first one failed in 2019 and the ship had to return to Earth prematurely.
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Steve Stich, who is in charge of private carrier programs at NASA, called the Starliner test flight “extremely successful.” According to him, he met all the goals. The test flight provided the US space agency and Boeing with a wealth of data that would be useful for launching the first manned test flight.
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Boeing hopes to become the second space carrier and astronaut “taxi” after billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX. This is what NASA would like, which wants to reduce its dependence on Russia when traveling to the ISS.
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