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Boeing fails key test to reach space station

cde.news desk 21 December 2019, 05:52 · 1 min read

A handout photo made available by the NASA shows the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop as it lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA, 20 December 2019. The uncrewed Orbital Flight Test was Starliner's maiden mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. EPA-EFE/NASA

Boeing Co’s new astronaut capsule failed after liftoff on Friday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in the embattled aerospace giant’s race to send humans to the orbital outpost.

The CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, but an automated timer error, which Boeing could not immediately explain, prevented the spacecraft from attaining the orbit that would have put it on track to rendezvous and dock with the space station, NASA said.

The Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing, which is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.

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Boeing fails key test to reach space station

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