Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docks with space station after thruster issues

Two NASA astronauts aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule arrived at the Global Space Station Thursday, effectively docking with the orbiting outpost despite problems with the spacecraft’s thrusters.

NASA verified that the spacecraft and its crew, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, docked with the space station at 1:34 p.m. ET.

“Nice to be attached to the huge town in the sky,” Wilmore informed mission controllers on the ground.

An previously docking attempt planned for 12:15 p.m. ET was called off after complications ended up found with 5 of the 28 thrusters on the reduce part of the Starliner capsule.

Flight controllers carry on to check challenges with the capsule’s reaction control thrusters, which are made use of to make great-tuned changes to the spacecraft’s trajectory, such as when it closes in on the place station. A variety of tests have been capable to recover all but just one thruster, and mission managers gave the go-ahead to carry on with docking.

The Starliner capsule is made to dock autonomously with the place station, but Wilmore and Williams can choose guide manage if required.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is more than 24 hrs into its extended-awaited inaugural crewed test flight to the house station. The capsule lifted off atop an Atlas V rocket Wednesday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Place Force Station.

Now that they have docked, the astronauts will get the job done by a number of responsibilities ahead of the hatches in between the Starliner capsule and the area station are opened at all around 3:20 p.m. ET.

The duo will then be greeted by the seven crewmembers presently stationed at the ISS: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy Dyson and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.

Wilmore and Williams are envisioned to shell out about a week at the place station. NASA has explained the astronauts and the Starliner capsule could return to Earth on June 14, but the date could transform as the mission progresses.

The take a look at flight is intended to show that the capsule can safely and securely ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International House Station. If prosperous, NASA could authorize Boeing to perform regular flights to the area station for the company.