After a mission that was postponed several times, 300 kilograms of cargo have arrived safely with the ISS crew. The project is more than two years behind schedule.
After taking off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport, Boeing’s “Starliner” has arrived at the ISS for the first time. After a day’s flight, the unmanned spacecraft docked at the outpost of humanity around 400 kilometers above the earth.
The important test for the crisis-ridden «Starliner» has thus initially been successful. The project is more than two years behind schedule due to a number of issues.
In the future, Boeing’s spacecraft will transport astronauts to the ISS as an alternative to SpaceX’s “Crew Dragon” space capsule. That should have happened a long time ago, but during a first test in December 2019, the spacecraft did not make it to the ISS – partly because of a problem with the automatic ignition of the engines. In the past year, the mission was postponed several times – and then the “Starliner” finally had to go back to the workshop completely because of valve problems.
NASA had described the start as a “milestone”. On board are over 300 kilograms of cargo, including supplies for the crew of the ISS. The Starliner is a semi-reusable spacecraft consisting of a crew capsule and a rocket-launched service module. Once approved for human transport, it can carry up to four crew members to the ISS.
