Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is at present on its approach to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) after a profitable launch aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night.
The spacecraft, which is on its second uncrewed check flight following a failed mission in 2019, is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 7:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. PT) on Friday, Might 20.
Orbital Flight Check-2 (OFT-2), because the mission is understood, is essential for Boeing because it seeks to show that it has lastly resolved the myriad of points that ruined the primary check flight and likewise prevented a second launch try in August final 12 months.
Apart from performing as a check flight, the spacecraft can also be carrying with it 500 kilos of cargo for the station.
If the Starliner can dock on the house station on Friday, and likewise make a profitable return to Earth subsequent week in a parachute-assisted touchdown in New Mexico, then the following check flight will embrace a crew.
Assuming the crewed flight to the ISS goes as deliberate, NASA will lastly have one other transportation possibility — alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft — for astronaut missions to and from the ISS.
What to anticipate
The livestream will present the Starliner’s regular strategy to the house station, with a real-time audio feed between Mission Management in Houston and the crew on the ISS additionally a part of the published.
We’ll additionally get to see Boeing’s spacecraft try its first-ever docking with the house station. Starliner, just like the Crew Dragon, options an computerized docking system that ought to allow it to autonomously hyperlink up with the orbital outpost.
Friday’s docking maneuver is a extremely anticipated a part of the mission because the spacecraft by no means received this far on its first check flight three years in the past.
Learn how to watch
NASA will start its livestream of the Starliner’s arrival on the house station at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT) on Friday, Might 20.
The precise docking is scheduled to happen about three-and-a-half hours later at 7:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. PT).
You may watch the livestream by way of the video participant embedded on the high of this web page, or by visiting NASA’s website, which is able to carry the identical feed.
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