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A close-up view of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft while rolling out from Boeings Commercial Cargo and Processing Facility in the pre-dawn hours at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 17, 2021, ahead of its scheduled launch on July 30. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP) (Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images)
It has been almost a year and a half since the last unmanned test of the Boeing Starliner capsule went wrong, and NASA has finally approved it.Second challengeNS. If all goes well, Starliner will start a new unmanned orbital flight test at 2:53 pm on July 30 (our side at 2:53 am on the 31st). The launch site was selected at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, and the rocket used was still Atlas V. If the plan changes, NASA will try again on August 3rd at the earliest.
The purpose of this test is to comprehensively examine the capabilities of Starliner. NASA wants to ensure that Boeing’s space capsule can meet their requirements in all aspects of the International Space Station mission (including launch, docking, and return). On the premise that the second flight test is successful, NASA will allow Boeing to continue to advance the next manned flight test. According to Steve Stich, head of NASA’s commercial manned program, the latter is expected to be carried out “later this year” as soon as possible.
From NASA’s perspective, they hope to ensure that there are two different space capsule options for the manned mission of the International Space Station. The current situation is that there is only SpaceX’s Crew Dragon family, so the success of the Boeing Starliner test is also of great significance to NASA.
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