Boeing’s Starliner capsule lands in White Sands, New Mexico, on May 25, 2022 to complete the OFT-2 mission.
NASA TV
Boeing landed its unmanned Starliner spacecraft in the New Mexico desert on Wednesday, completing a crucial test flight as the company prepares to transport astronauts.
Starliner landed on the U.S. Army’s White Sands missile field after leaving the International Space Station, concluding the six-day orbital flight test mission 2, or OFT-2.
The mission completed one of its most important test objectives, reaching the ISS and successfully docking. The OFT-2 marks a critical development milestone in the development of Boeing’s Starliner, which has encountered several obstacles and delays over the past three years.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen before docking on the International Space Station on May 20, 2022 during the unmanned OFT-2 mission.
NASA
Boeing has been developing its Starliner spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, after earning nearly $ 5 billion in contracts to build the capsule. The company competes under Elon Musk’s program against SpaceX, which completed the development of its Crew Dragon spacecraft and is now in its fourth operational human spaceflight for NASA.
The aerospace giant was once matched with SpaceX in the race to launch NASA astronauts. However, delays in developing Starliner have pushed Boeing steadily backward, both in terms of timing and finances. Due to the fixed price nature of its contract with NASA, Boeing absorbed the cost of additional work on the capsule and has so far spent $ 595 million.
Boeing’s next Starliner mission is expected to be the crew’s flight test, or CFT, that will fly the first astronauts aboard the capsule. However, the company is examining whether to redesign the propulsion valves manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne in Starliner, which malfunctioned during the company’s first attempt to launch the OFT-2 mission in August 2021.