Boeing’s Starliner Successfully Docks With Space Station

Next week, the vehicle is expected to depart the station and land under parachutes in a desert site in the western part of the U.S., according to NASA.

Completing the mission would set the stage for Boeing to use Starliner for high-profile astronaut flights. It would also give the company a win as it faces challenges with many of its aircraft programs, including the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner jets.

Before docking with the research facility, the Starliner completed a series of maneuvers to demonstrate its capabilities. Flight controllers have been gathering information about how the vehicle operates in space. The capsule isn’t carrying crew members on the demonstration mission.

After launching Thursday evening, two thrusters used for maneuvering the Starliner failed, but a third functioned as expected, allowing the vehicle to stay on track. The thrusters that failed were among a subset of those devices on the vehicle. Boeing said earlier Friday that teams concluded a drop in pressure caused the two thrusters to cut off.

With other thrusters available, the failures don’t “pose a risk to the rest of the flight test,” the company said. Boeing also said teams were investigating an issue with a thermal-cooling device on the Starliner, but subsystems were maintaining stable temperatures.

So far, Boeing hasn’t been able to complete an uncrewed test mission. A software error botched an attempt in 2019, and valves on the vehicle became stuck last summer before a makeup launch, causing months of delays while Boeing and NASA worked to address the issue.

The capsule carried food and other cargo to the space station and is set to bring other items back to Earth, with a scheduled departure from the station on May 25.

The space agency currently uses vehicles operated by

Elon Musk’s

SpaceX for astronaut missions to the space station but wants to have two U.S. companies available to provide that service.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]

Next week, the vehicle is expected to depart the station and land under parachutes in a desert site in the western part of the U.S., according to NASA.

Completing the mission would set the stage for Boeing to use Starliner for high-profile astronaut flights. It would also give the company a win as it faces challenges with many of its aircraft programs, including the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner jets.

Before docking with the research facility, the Starliner completed a series of maneuvers to demonstrate its capabilities. Flight controllers have been gathering information about how the vehicle operates in space. The capsule isn’t carrying crew members on the demonstration mission.

After launching Thursday evening, two thrusters used for maneuvering the Starliner failed, but a third functioned as expected, allowing the vehicle to stay on track. The thrusters that failed were among a subset of those devices on the vehicle. Boeing said earlier Friday that teams concluded a drop in pressure caused the two thrusters to cut off.

With other thrusters available, the failures don’t “pose a risk to the rest of the flight test,” the company said. Boeing also said teams were investigating an issue with a thermal-cooling device on the Starliner, but subsystems were maintaining stable temperatures.

So far, Boeing hasn’t been able to complete an uncrewed test mission. A software error botched an attempt in 2019, and valves on the vehicle became stuck last summer before a makeup launch, causing months of delays while Boeing and NASA worked to address the issue.

The capsule carried food and other cargo to the space station and is set to bring other items back to Earth, with a scheduled departure from the station on May 25.

The space agency currently uses vehicles operated by

Elon Musk’s

SpaceX for astronaut missions to the space station but wants to have two U.S. companies available to provide that service.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]